Christian Horner says that Red Bull's reliability in yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix came to the detriment of performance.
Following a painful series of Renault engine failures, Red Bull was wary of its chances of finishing Sunday's race without any mechanical issues.
Red Bull subsequently dialed out a bit of performance in order to improve the reliability of both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo's power units
"We ran pretty safe on engines, obviously reliability has been a concern," Horner told Sky Sports after the race.
"I think the layout of this circuit, that long, last sector, just is a bit more punishing for us than Mexico. We couldn't make up the time in the middle sector which obviously is where we needed to."
Horner said its engines had been turned down by "a couple of tenths", which was pretty much what the tea was missing against it front-running rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.
"Then Max is driving the car harder to stay with Kimi [Raikkonen] and Valtteri [Bottas]. When you get too close that starts damaging the tyres," Horner added.
"You're in a vicious circle at that point. You're pushing to keep up, but you're losing the tyre at the end of the stint."
It was a weekend full of tensions and contentious statements for Renault and Red Bull, with Toro Rosso expressing grievances about its partnership with the French manufacturer.
Horner steered clear however of adding fuel to the fire, and remained confident in Renaults' ability to improve in 2018.
"We're hearing that Renault are making gains," said the Red Bull Racing boss.
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