Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says there is more to come from Renault’s latest specification of power unit that helped Max Verstappen to second place in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Singapore has traditionally been a strong circuit for Red Bull and Verstappen duly qualified second behind Lewis Hamilton, retaining that position in Sunday’s race. Although the Dutchman complained of mapping issues costing him performance throughout the weekend, Horner says there were notable performance gains from the latest specification that Red Bull received in Monza.
Max Verstappen leads Sebastian Vettel in Singapore. (Image by Zak Mauger/LAT)
“It is difficult to say (if Verstappen could have won) — I think we could have certainly got close to them but then we saw a power increase compared to previous
Horner highlights Mexico as Red Bull’s only other realistic opportunity to win a race under normal circumstances, with further power unit penalties expected to follow for the next race at Sochi in order to have a bigger pool of engines for the rest of the season. At the same time as managing the Renault situation this year, Horner has an eye on Honda’s progress before Red Bull switches suppliers in 2019.
“We are encouraged by what we are seeing but it is still early days. But there is a very strong desire within Honda and it is great to be working in a partnership, so we are looking forward to the next chapter for Red Bull Racing. Before that we have six races to close out with our existing partner.”
Source: Racer.com