Christian Horner believes eight different grand prix winners in F1 2025 is a distinct possibility with the latest challengers all looking “similar”.

However, the Red Bull team boss did identify one team which he believes went down a different route with their concept, that being Ferrari.

Ferrari the ‘differentiator’ in ‘converged’ F1 2025 grid

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The upcoming season has the potential to be an all-time classic, with the regulations that have been in place since 2022 now into the final year of their cycle ahead of the big F1 2026 revamp.

The maturity of the current ruleset has seen the grid tighten up, with McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all enjoying race-winning pace last season, building anticipation for a thrilling F1 2025 title battle.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen goes into the season chasing a fifth World Championship in a row, but his team are looking to regain their spot at the F1 mountaintop, having dropped to P3 in 2024 as McLaren took the Constructors’ title with Ferrari runner-up.

And when speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Bahrain testing, Horner was asked what Red Bull must do to get back on top with their new creation, the RB21.

“I think we’ve just got to improve across some of the characteristics of last year’s car,” he replied.

“And I think the team have worked very hard on that over the off-season.

“Let’s not forget, we still won nine races and four sprint races with that car last year. So we had a reasonable basis from which to develop.

“But the competition is very tight. And of course, in the last year of this set of regulations, you can see the conversions. I mean, the cars all look incredibly similar today, and I think it’s going to be very, very competitive throughout the season, from the first race all the way through the season.”

However, Horner pointed to Ferrari as a team which is still marching to the beat of its own drum.

With seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton arriving from Mercedes to partner Charles Leclerc, Ferrari has its sights set on F1 2025 title glory.

“I think that into this cycle of regulations, it’s clear that the cars have converged and they look very, very similar,” Horner continued.

“I think probably Ferrari is a standout as probably being a differentiator.

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“But, you know, that’s inevitable, that marginal gains are going to be there. Every surface on our car is different to last year, it just looks similar because it’s a similar philosophy.

“And you can see other cars have converged with that. So that’s what is going to make the racing so tight this year, that some cars might suit some circuits better than others, and it’s all going to be about extracting the maximum amount of your platform out of your package, and getting it right on the day.

“So I think the biggest winner out of that would be the fans and the followers of the sport. Because as Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] says, you could quite easily have eight winners this year, and you know, some curveballs in there as well. It could really be pretty open.”

The F1 2025 season begins with Round 1 of 24 – the Australian Grand Prix – on March 16.

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