According to Horner, the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull is due to the Renault engine
The director of the reigning four-time world champion team is certain that the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull is at least one second, and it's on the Renault engine side that the reasons should be sought.
Mercedes won the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne with a comfortable lead that could have been even more pronounced without the appearance of the Safety Car on lap 12. At Red Bull, even though Daniel Ricciardo’s second place (ultimately annulled for an irregularity regarding fuel flow) could reassure about the potential of the RB10, it’s clear that the performance gap with Mercedes remains very significant.
For Christian Horner, questioned by Crash.net, this gap would represent about one second per lap: « Mercedes controlled the race, I’m sure they weren’t at their full potential. I would say that on average, they are a second faster per lap, that’s what we need to gain. We also need to watch out for Williams because if they hadn’t had a few issues, they could have finished ahead. »
The main area for improvement, according to Red Bull, is with the Renault power unit, particularly by improving its efficiency on straights and resolving software issues: « The car’s behavior is heavily affected by torque management, which greatly impacts our top speed. 90% of the problems are software-related, especially the interaction between the energy recovery systems and the engine itself. There are many possibilities, and the avenues for improvement are numerous, involving our engineers in Milton Keynes (editor’s note: Red Bull’s factory) and the Renault engineers in Viry-Chatillon ».
Recall that in his post-race statements, Sebastian Vettel also pointed out the operation of his power unit: « I encountered an issue with the MGU-K (note: kinetic energy recovery system), I was losing a lot of power. This year with the engines, everything is connected; you need power to recharge the energy recovery systems, which in turn generate power. When you encounter a problem with one component, all the others are affected. »
When asked about Red Bull’s chances of winning the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang, Christian Horner remains fatalistic: « No, it’s unlikely, we only have two weeks between Melbourne and Sepang where we will try to start closing some of the gap to Mercedes. »
