克里斯蒂安·霍纳：基米·安东内利‘赢得’了成为梅赛德斯一号车手的权利
克里斯蒂安·霍纳认为即将成为一级方程式世界冠军的基米·安东内利在2026年的统治表现中‘赢得’了成为梅赛德斯一号车手的权利。20岁的他在本赛季剩余六轮比赛中领先队友乔治·拉塞尔102分，因此他可以在奥斯汀的下一场比赛中锁定冠军。
克里斯蒂安·霍纳：基米·安东内利‘赢得’了成为梅赛德斯一号车手的权利
基米·安东内利正在朝着成为F1最年轻世界冠军迈进，并赢得了梅赛德斯选择他作为一号车手而非乔治·拉塞尔的权利
克里斯蒂安·霍纳认为即将成为F1世界冠军的基米·安东内利在2026年的统治表现后，‘赢得’了成为梅赛德斯绝对一号车手的权利
这位20岁的车手在本赛季剩余六轮比赛中领先队友乔治·拉塞尔102分，因此他可以在奥斯汀的下一场比赛中锁定冠军。
安东内利在F1的第二年里就取得了这样的成就，凭借14个领奖台，其中包括8个胜利，同时他在2026年作为夺冠热门的拉塞尔之上。
霍纳认为，如果另一支车队成为威胁，安东内利是领导统治力强大的梅赛德斯车队前进的人选，同时在一个关于车队是否应该优先考虑车手的持续辩论中。
霍纳在2005年至2025年担任车队老板期间，经常支持这种做法，首先是与四届世界冠军塞巴斯蒂安·维特尔，然后是与另一位四届世界冠军马克斯·维斯塔潘，红牛车队在这段时间里一直处于领先地位。
例如，去年迈凯轮采取了截然不同的方法，奥斯卡·皮亚斯蒂和最终冠军兰多·诺里斯受到了平等对待，但他们几乎被维斯塔潘击败。
或者，正如霍纳所说，1986年威廉姆斯为尼格尔·曼塞尔和纳尔逊·皮克特制造了赢得车队冠军的FW11赛车，他们输给了麦克拉伦的阿兰·普罗斯特的车手冠军。
曼塞尔赢得1986年冠军的希望，在澳大利亚决赛中因爆胎而戏剧性地结束。
“始终让每个人都满意是非常困难的，”霍纳对《Autosport》说。“你只需要诚实，并遵循‘好吧，这里的目的是什么’的原则。”
“最终，团队是第一位的，车手们最终是承包商。承诺两位车手能够赢得世界冠军是不现实的。
“最终，将会有一个车手在赛道上取得优势，他们都有同样的机会，他们都有同样的设备，但你在赛道上的表现决定了你在团队中的尊重和地位。”
“就像现在的基米·安东内利一样。他通过在赛道上的表现赢得了那个团队中的位置，如果他和来自另一个团队的对手之间发生了一场激烈的竞争，团队将不得不采取立场。”
“否则，他们可能会像威廉姆斯队当年在与曼塞尔和皮奎特对抗普罗斯特时那样，失去一项冠军。所以，这就是你如何设定你的赛车计划去比赛。”"
“红牛队总是选择一号车手的动机可能源于2010年，当时维特尔和他的队友马克·韦伯在争夺冠军时经常发生碰撞。”
它几乎让法拉利的费尔南多·阿隆索赢得了那个冠军，但随后从2011年开始，维特尔在韦伯头上确立了统治地位，维斯塔潘也在他的各个队友头上做了类似的事情。
红牛的一切都是围绕着维斯塔潘建立的。
‘在早期，我们是一个年轻的团队，我们刚开始赢比赛，然后随之而来的是胜利带来的所有压力和突然升高的期望，’霍纳补充道。
“媒体的审查和聚光灯都在你身上，一切都被分析到了极致，你只能坚持你的原则。”
“你不能让所有人都一直满意，做对车队最有利的事才是我的职责。”
"我的工作就是做到最好，为红牛车队效力，这意味着赢得比赛。”
英文原文
Christian Horner: Kimi Antonelli has 'earned' the right to be Mercedes' number one
Kimi Antonelli is on course to become F1's youngest world champion and earn the right for Mercedes to pick him as its number-one driver over George Russell
Christian Horner reckons the soon-to-be Formula 1 world champion Kimi Antonelli has ‘earned’ his right to become the outright number-one driver at Mercedes after a dominant 2026.
The 20-year-old holds a 102-point lead over team-mate George Russell in second with six rounds remaining this season, so he can clinch the title in Austin next time out.
Antonelli has achieved this in only his second year of F1 and thanks to 14 podiums including eight wins, while he has had the upper hand on Russell who entered 2026 as the title favourite.
So Horner thinks Antonelli is the man to lead the dominant Mercedes forwards if another squad becomes a threat, amid an ongoing debate over whether teams should prioritise a driver.
Horner’s Red Bull outfit was often in favour of this during his time as team boss from 2005 to 2025, first with Sebastian Vettel and then Max Verstappen - both of whom won four world titles each.
McLaren, for example, had a contrasting approach last year with Oscar Piastri and eventual champion Lando Norris, who were given equal treatment but almost beaten by Verstappen.
Or, as referred to by Horner, in 1986 when Williams produced the constructors’ title-winning FW11 for Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, who lost the drivers’ crown to McLaren’s Alain Prost.
Mansell's hopes of winning the 1986 title dramatically ended with an exploding tyre at the Australia finale
“It's very hard to keep everybody happy all the time,” Horner told Autosport. “You’ve just got to be honest and with the principles of ‘okay, what are the objectives here’.
“At the end of the day, the team is what comes first and the drivers are ultimately contractors. To promise both drivers that you can be able to win a world championship is unrealistic.
“Ultimately there will be one driver that achieves superiority on track and they're both given the same chance, they're both given the same equipment, but you earn the respect and a status within a team by what you do on a track.
“It’s like Kimi Antonelli at the moment. He's earning that position in that team by what he's doing on circuit and if there came to a tight fight between him and a rival from another team, the team would have to take a stance.
“Otherwise they risk losing a championship in the way that Williams potentially did with Mansell and Piquet against Prost all those years ago. So it's just how you set your stall out to go racing.”
The motivation behind Red Bull always picking a number one perhaps stemmed from 2010 when Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber often collided while vying for the title.
It almost led to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso clinching that championship, but then from 2011 Vettel asserted dominance over Webber with Verstappen doing similar over his various team-mates.
Everything at Red Bull is built around Verstappen
“What it taught me in the early days, we were a young team, we just started winning and then all the pressures that go with winning and the expectations suddenly rise,” added Horner.
“The media scrutiny and the spotlight is on you, everything is being analysed to the nth degree and you've just got to stick to your principles.
“You can't keep everybody happy all of the time and it's doing what is best for the team.
"That's what my job was, I was employed to do the best for Red Bull Racing which meant winning.”
Motorsport.com ·
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