Christian Horner feels Aston Martin Red Bull Racing are still being held back by their Renault Sport power unit, and more still needs to be done by the French manufacturer in order for the team to be truly competitive in 2018.
2018 marks the fifth season of the V6 Hybrid era, and in that time Red Bull has only taken eight victories, and they started the season with a fourth place finish for Daniel Ricciardo and a sixth place for Max Verstappen, having headed to Australia with the hope of fighting for victory with Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport.
Although their race pace was pretty strong, their inability to match their rivals, particularly Mercedes, on a Saturday leaves them with too much work to on the Sundays, something that team principal Horner wants Renault to address.
“It’s extenuated [in Melbourne],” Horner is quoted as saying by RACER. “Bahrain you can overtake, China you can overtake. But it exposes you.
“You’ve only got to look at the speed trap where all the Renault engines were grouped together with varying amounts of downforce on the car, so that’s where we need to make progress.”
“There are bits in the pipeline,” he continued. “That’s more of a question for Renault than for me because they’re obviously not divulging everything they’re up to, but it’s certainly something we’re pushing for.
“Alternatively, one could say perhaps you should have the same engine mode, like in parc ferme when the cars leave for qualifying – maybe engine modes should be the same from the moment you leave the garage from the end of the grand prix.”
