Red Bull Racing says they need to fully understand why their team fell so far behind the top two teams at the British Grand Prix after appearing to make strides forward in the previous race.
Just seven days before the British Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo finished on the podium in Austria, just some six-seconds behind the top two of Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel. But at Silverstone, at no point did either Red Bull car look capable of challenging for a podium – even if Ricciardo did manage to charge from nineteenth on the grid to finish fifth.
Now, team boss Christian Horner says the team need to understand why they appeared to take a step backwards in terms of pace compared to rivals Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.
“We felt that we were a bit off,” Horner told Autosport. “I am not sure we got the most out of the car.
“We struggled a little bit in the low-speed corners, so there is quite a bit to go and understand, analysis-wise, why that is.”
One possible reason for the lack of comparative pace at Silverstone comes down to the new-for-2017 cars and their greater downforce levels, making Silverstone more of a power dependant circuit than in recent years.
“Silverstone now, with this new generation of cars, is again 70% full throttle,” Horner said.
“And again, that is quite painful in comparison to our rivals.”
Red Bull are due to bring a “significant” aerodynamic upgrade to the next race in Hungary according to Ricciardo, with the hope of repeating his 2014 victory there. But Horner has tempered expectations by playing down the changes.
“It is all part of the evolution,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it significant.
“I would say it is again relatively subtle in terms of a constant process of trying to get performance on the car.”