Horner blames engine for Red Bull struggle but is positive for next season

Christian Horner has said that the 2018 Formula 1 season could have been "quite different" if Red Bull had an extra 40kW of power from Renault. 

Horner has put Red Bulls lack of championship competitiveness down to the Renault power outlet that they used. The Red Bull team boss believes that his drivers could have challenged for the championship if their cars had an extra 40kw of power. 

Red Bull have switched to Honda and will hope that their power outlet can provide the extra power. 

“It’s always easy to say ifs, buts and maybes. If there would have been another 40kW in the back of the car then the season could have looked quite different,” Horner said to crash.net.  

“Hats off to everyone at Milton Keynes to arguably producing one of our best ever chassis.

“If you look at the other users with the same engine [Renault and McLaren], there’s a world of difference."

"Reliability isn’t something we’ve had,” Horner admitted.

“We’ve had 11 or 12 retirements this year - that’s our biggest Achilles heel. If we can achieve power and reliability.

“Lewis had one DNF this year, likewise with Sebastian. That’s the rate we have to be aiming to achieve.”

Honda had some issues with reliability but it is thought that this could be because they were pushing to develop the power outlet too much. Red Bull will hope that this power outlet switch will win them their first world title since 2013.