Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admits Renault’s problems at the start of the season masked weaknesses with the team’s chassis which needed addressing.
A regulation change over the winter saw the introduction of titanium skid blocks on the underside of the cars which wear more quickly and therefore prevent teams from running aggressive rake angles - with the rear much higher than the front - as the front of the floor would touch the track. The new regulation negates a previous Red Bull strength, and speaking exclusively to F1i Horner said Renault’s reliability problems at the start of the year held back progress with the RB11.
“We’ve found ourselves on the back foot in terms of reliability and penalties and so on,” Horner said. “That’s obviously been quite difficult to deal with, but I feel on the chassis side we’ve made very good progress.
“Regulations again over the winter did actually hurt us, particularly around the frontal area of the car, but I think the team has understood that in recent months and actually in the last two or three grands prix we’ve actually started making good headway.”
When asked if Red Bull was aware just how damaging the regulation change regarding the floor was likely to be to the team, Horner admitted it took a while to surface.
“Not really and I think our lack of mileage … when you’re chasing other reliability issues you’re not focusing on performance. I think that probably caused us a bit of a delay as well.”
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