From new kids on the block to World Champions in just six seasons – Christian Horner’s achievement in transforming Red Bull Racing from a midfield team to Formula One kingpins is, on the surface, the stuff of sporting fairytales.

Fairytales, however, are just that, and Horner’s success with Red Bull Racing has been built on more solid foundations. From the recruitment of undoubtedly the finest design group currently working in Formula One to the formulation of perhaps the strongest driver pairing in the sport in the extraordinarily competitive duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, Horner has shown that there is no alchemy in building a title-winning team but simply a lot of hard work, rigorous planning and the ability to marshall a supremely talented workforce in pursuit of a single goal – victory.

Not one to allow the team to rest on its laurels, however, Horner is now targeting a repeat, just as he did with his first team.

“You’re always looking for the next thing,” he says. “I was thinking about this recently: In Formula 3000 I achieved a championship win in the same time frame as with Red Bull Racing. Then in F3000 I went on to win three titles in a row. I would dearly love to emulate that with this team.”

“We’ve joined some of the elite names, some of the great teams in Formula One and now we’re determined to build on that. We want to prove that we can remain in that elite group. We have been the most successful team in F1 in 2010 and we want to consolidate that position and seek out even greater success.”

He is convinced, too, that the drivers who brought home the Constructors’ title in 2010 are even better placed in 2011 to deliver that continued success.

“We are very lucky in that we have possibly the strongest driver line-up in on the grid,” he says. “Sebastian will go into 2011 as the youngest ever F1 champion. That’s quite special and continues a pattern started when he became the then youngest driver at a grand prix weekend in 2007. Since then he’s been the youngest points scorer, the youngest pole winner and the youngest race winner. Now he has the championship record too and he will undoubtedly want to become the youngest double winner.”

“Mark too had the season of his career,” he adds. “He won four races and was in championship contention right up until the final race. Of course he’ll have been frustrated to lose out on the title but he will have learned a lot of lessons from 2010 and having had time for reflection, he too will come back stronger, more motivated and hungrier than ever.”

“The 2011 season is going to be really gruelling, but it’s going to be fantastic, not just for us as racers but for Formula One fans. We’ll have 20 races and, of course, a new circuit in India, which should be outstanding. It will be a fascinating competition. I’m sure also that the results will ebb and flow and there will inevitably be great highs and some lows over the course of such a long season, but as long as we can apply what we learned from 2010 and give it our best shot, the results will take care of themselves – as they did last year.”