Horner: We still have plenty to do

Much was expected from the Red Bull upgrades which were bolted on to the RB13 for the Spanish Grand Prix, but it was apparent that Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen did not have the ammunition to tackle pace of Ferrari and Mercedes but team chief Christian Horner is adamant that they closed the gap.

Horner said after the race in Barcelona, “The pace to the front running cars was pretty significant, so we still have plenty to do. But we feel we have made some progress this weekend. It has given us a very clear development direction and we hope to be able to capitalise on that in the coming races.”

“If you look at the weekend as a whole, we have definitely addressed some of the issues and definitely made some progress with the car. I think Max was unlucky at the start. He picked the outside, Valtteri [Bottas] started off a chain reaction hitting Kimi [Raikkonen] who bounced into Max.”

“There was a small chance he was going to come out of that corner in third, but three-into-one unfortunately doesn’t go, so it was a shame to lose Max on the first lap,” lamented Horner.

Ricciardo, in contrast, finished third after a lonely afternoon of action, 75 seconds down on the winner when the chequered flag dropped. Way out of touch of the top two, but at the same time way ahead of the rest.

Horner continued, “Daniel had a pretty lonely race, benefiting from Bottas’ retirement, and pretty much from halfway through the race we turned the engine down to try to save engine life, as obviously it has to do quite a few events.

“I think there are still issues, because when you have a gap like that, the way you are working the tyres is a clear element. And particularly this track, which is an interesting work out on the tyres.

“It is an area that we are definitely giving away performance. We looked relatively more competitive in the second half of the race than the first,” said Horner.

Big Question: Can Red Bull recover and challenge for wins again this season?