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Daniel Ricciardo believes Red Bull's chassis was strong enough from last year's Hungarian Grand Prix onwards to challenge for wins if it had had Mercedes power.

Tensions between Red Bull and Renault increased over the course of the season as the French manufacturer struggled with performance and reliability.

Red Bull requested to terminate the partnership only to stick with Renault, but with the unit badged as TAG Heuer, after failing to agree a deal with Ferrari, Mercedes or Honda.

Since the current F1 engine package was introduced for the 2014 season, a customer team - even those powered by Mercedes - has not won a grand prix.

"Since Hungary, the car not only performed better, but it was easier to set up," Ricciardo told Autosport.

"Our Friday evenings finished so much earlier.

"It's like 2014, it's been in that window. We either found the window or the window just expanded.

"The signs were there at Silverstone, but Budapest was really where it turned.

"I'd honestly say from Budapest, if we had a Merc in the back we would've won a few races, to say the least."

Ricciardo also believes the rule changes affecting the nose of the car hurt its performance earlier in the season.

"When we did have the new nose/wing combination at Silverstone, that was when it started going better," he said. "That was a big one.

"I know they went through a lot of noses and we tried a lot of combinations.

"That was probably something that we didn't get on top of as soon as we could've done."