Abiteboul recognises the problems that Red Bull face with Honda

With the Honda engine partnership, Red Bull Racing were considered to be serious challengers for Mercedes. Verstappen is indeed the only one who can make it difficult for Mercedes, but the gap is usually large. Cyril Abiteboul of Renault has an explanation for this.

"I think Red Bull is a fantastic team but in my opinion, Red Bull has missed a trick of modern Formula 1," he said at the press conference prior to the Italian GP. "You can't have a chassis organisation and an engine organisation that are so distinct."

Abiteboul is referring to the fact that Red Bull still buy their engine from a third party, even though they are currently Honda's only customer. Because of this, according to the French, you cannot consistently compete for victories. He bases that opinion on his own collaboration with Red Bull.

"We have failed to do that all together. It just looks like they [Red Bull] are not able to do much better with Honda. But it just shows that there's a level of complexity and perfection that is required in Formula 1 in order to win and in particular to beat Mercedes," he added.