No escape clause for Red Bull drivers - Horner

Red Bull Racing is keeping its bulls Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen locked in the pen, with no possibility of escaping for 2018.

Team boss Christian Horner confirmed that the Milton Keynes-bases outfit had every intention of maintaining its tight hold on both its drivers.

And that no performance-related clauses existed in their current contracts.

"No, none at all. They are both straightforward clean contracts," Horner told Reuter's Alan Baldwin.

"I've got no doubt that both Max and Daniel will be driving an RB14 next year."

Red Bull's performance this season has fallen short of expectations as the team struggles to bridge the gap with front-runners Mercedes and Ferrari.

The team's new-spec RB13 has benefitted lately from the input of design guru Adrian Newey, but a somewhat stagnant Renault power unit is weighing Red Bull down, according to Horner  who publicly  expressed as much and irritated Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul in the process.

• Video: From build to base: the Red Bull Energy Station

"Cyril obviously can be a bit irritable at times," said Horner.

"Sometimes we get mixed messages but the most important thing is that they’re working hard, they’re making progress and hopefully with the introduction of each power unit we should see incremental improvements."

Ricciardo was on his way to a sure win last year in Monaco before a pit stop blunder ruined his chances.

Red Bull have obviously improved the processes and procedures in that department, and while the Aussie isn't a favourite for top spoils this weekend, Horner believes a strong result can be achieved.

"Daniel has always excelled at this circuit, he’s very confident," added the Brit.

"He’s won support races here, he’s qualified on pole here, he’s led a lot of laps here. He put in an outstanding performance in 2014, same again in ’16.

"But Max is getting there as well. He had a bit of a scruffy day yesterday afternoon, with just traffic and red flags, but he’s in pretty decent shape.

"We don’t take anything for granted and we know we have ground to make up. But the whole team is massively motivated to close that gap down and I think has actually been doing a very good job over the early races."

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