Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has revealed two drivers he would have liked to have seen race for his team.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit has become one of the top teams in F1 history since their arrival on the grid in 2005, with them picking up the reins from the Jaguar team that failed to live up to expectations.
Indeed, since 2005 Red Bull have won several drivers’ and constructors’ championships, and have also had some top drivers race for them including Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, David Coulthard, and Mark Webber.
A fine roster of drivers past and present, then, but there are a few other names that Horner would have liked to have seen in the dark blue overalls of the team, with him revealing two in particular he felt could have been hits for RBR.
Speaking to the Extraordinary Tales With Seb Coe podcast, Horner named an ex-F1 race winner and a nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner as two he’d have liked to work with in F1:
“There’s a few over the years that I would have liked to have seen [drive for Red Bull Racing.] I think [Juan Pablo] Montoya underperformed in Formula 1, I think he was a wonderfully talented driver that should have achieved more.
“There was a driver that I tested in the Arden team that I again thought was a phenomenal driver that Formula 1 missed. There was a chap called Tom Kristensen, [and he] went on to enjoy tremendous success in sports cars.”
Montoya arrived in F1 back in 2001 and certainly set the cat among the pigeons with some bold overtakes and incredible speed, with him pushing the great Michael Schumacher hard and also in the title conversation during the 2003 season.
Kristensen, meanwhile, became a sports car icon with him holding the record for most wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, with six of his nine wins coming successively.
Ultimately, there will always be some drivers that get away and do not end up working for certain teams, or even making it to F1, but Horner can still be pleased with the top names he has worked with during his time in the sport so far.
He’s overseen the project at Red Bull Racing from the very get-go, too, and so has seen it all when it comes to the highs and lows that his drivers have been through.
