Horner: Red Bull not targeting wins in 2019

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the team is not targeting race wins in 2019 after their switch to Honda power.

According to the Red Bull boss, there was no concrete target set at the beginning of the year for the team to win races this season after jumping ship from Renault.

Past comments from Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko and Max Verstappen indicated there was intent for the Milton-Keynes-based team to take race victory in 2019 but that is not the case according to Horner.

“Helmut obviously likes to take an optimistic outlook and we are only three races in, but from a team perspective we have never set any targets in terms of race victories. Our goal is about closing that gap," he is quoted by Crash.Net

“I think we are all interested in being as competitive as we can as quickly as we can and what results come out of that, the races will dictate.

“Our goal this year has been all about closing the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari and we are doing that."

Red Bull has comfortably been the third fastest team this season, even challenging Ferrari in Melbourne and China as the second fastest car. Despite the lowering of expectations for some, Horner says the team is making progress with Honda.

“Definitely we’ve made a step forward since Bahrain and we are definitely more competitive. When you look on the overlays in sector one and two [at Shanghai] we are in good shape."