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Renault upgrade should put Red Bull in frame for wins

Helmut Marko believes the Renault upgrade set to be introduced at the Canadian Grand Prix should put Red Bull in the frame for victories later this season.

Red Bull has only been able to challenge for the podium at the Chinese Grand Prix so far this season, where Daniil Kvyat finished third and Daniel Ricciardo fourth despite an early puncture when leading. Renault has been talking up its next power unit upgrade - with the B-spec engine to be tested after the race in Barcelona - and Marko is hopeful wins will be possible on circuits where the power unit isn't the deciding factor.

"China was very special - a bit out of the norm," Marko told the official Formula 1 website. "Daniel (Ricciardo) had the speed, yes, and in the end we were unlucky because without his puncture he could have finished second. But don’t forget Hamilton had his issues and the two Ferraris collided at the start. That will not happen at every race unfortunately.

"Looking at the Russian weekend: the engine power is super important there - we saw in qualifying that we had dropped back a bit again. We are again in the region of the Williams.

"What we are really looking forward is the next [power unit] upgrade - how powerful it will be. We are pretty optimistic. If the figures are right it should put us back in a situation where we can win races again on circuits like Budapest and Singapore - tracks that don’t have long straights."

Acknowledging what a difference it would represent if Red Bull was to be winning races less than a year after threatening to quit the sport, Marko added: "Yes, it is. A big step. In fact, we hope to be a threat to Ferrari the rest of the season."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.