Horner focusing on positives despite engine upgrade delay

Team principal of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner is adamant that the team will improve before the end of the season. The comments come after Renault, who supply Red Bull with engines, has decided not to bring a major upgrade to any race this season.

Instead, there will be small race-by-race updates, with the big upgrade not coming until 2018. Red Bull has struggled to match the front-runners this season, with their engine power playing a key role. Renault made some steps in 2016, but have seen Mercedes and Ferrari streak away out in front this season.

"Well, this is Renault's decision," Horner told the official F1 website. "We take whatever we can, when we can - for sure we'd rather sooner than later! We knew that Montreal would be tricky and so will be the next two races, Azerbaijan and Austria.

"We will probably introduce our next engine [from the season's allotted allocation] in Austria - and hopefully that will be a bit of a boost as our fuel supplier ExxonMobil did a great job finding performance. In this area there is quite a bit of potential."

Nothing is surprising

Red Bull was hoping for an engine upgrade at some point over the next two races. Azerbaijan and Austria are not expected to play to the strengths of the Milton Keynes based team, but Horner says the decision that Renault has made doesn't surprise him.

"Nothing surprises me these days. You deal with the hand that you've got and we will keep on pushing the best we can. As I just said, we are very confident our new partner ExxonMobil will help in performance from that side. And as I said before, the last three races have been promising, so let's see what Baku holds for us."

Fergal Walsh