Even powered by Honda, Red Bull would have won - Horner

Christian Horner reckons that Red Bull Racing would have been successful at the venues where it prevailed this season had its drivers been powered by a Honda engine.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit will be switching its allegiance from Renault to the Japanese manufacturer next season, but many still doubt the wisdom of that decision.

However, Horner's confidence in his future engine supplier's product - or perhaps his disdain for Renault - is such that he believes Daniel Ricciardo's wins in China and Monaco would also have been achieved with Honda instead of Renault power.

"We'd have still won the Grands Prix we won," Horner told Motorsport.com last month in Austria.

"Honda are within one per cent of our measurement of where we currently are.

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"There's still a significant chunk to get to Ferrari and Mercedes but having the full focus of an OEM like Honda behind us, combined with the fact that with Renault we were becoming more and more the customer as inevitably their focus becomes more centered on their own team, it was absolutely the right timing to go this different path."

Horner cites Red Bull's future works status with Honda as a big engineering asset for the team next season, whereas its current RB14 follows design constraints imposed by Renault according to the requirements of its own works team.

"With where we currently are with Renault, the positioning of any box, any juncture, on the engine, is dictated by their own works team," said Horner.

"We have to accommodate whatever Renault Enstone want to adopt. Sometimes we have to make compromises to accommodate that.

"With Honda, we will have the ability to have the discussions in advance to try to optimise the integration between engine and chassis.

"They are earlier on the curve and they have the resource and the capacity. One of the biggest issues that probably Renault have struggled with is probably the financial commitment to the R&D process," added Horner.

"Mercedes have spent a lot of money, and invested heavily, as have Ferrari.

"These power units are extremely complex and you can see now that there are still incremental gains being made with the introduction of each power unit."

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