Christian Horner admits that Red Bull Racing's results in 2016 exceeded its expectations, and is hoping to carry the team's rewards and benefits into the coming year.
Following a dismal 2015 campaign marked by mediocre performance and a troubled relationship with engine partner Renault, Red Bull Racing found itself back in the hunt this year with the Milton Keynes achieving two outright victories. And It was no small feat as Horner underlines.
"I think this year has been a great year for the team," said Horner.
"We came into it with very low expectations and being in the top five of the constructors’ looked like it would be a challenge.
"So to come away to finish second in the constructors’ championship, third in the drivers’ championship, having won two Grand Prix and a pole position in Monte Carlo, 16 podiums and Ricciardo complete every racing lap of the season with 100% reliability, has been an enormous progression from 12 months ago.
"Despite new regulations coming in for next year which obviously are an unknown to everyone we take an awful lot of benefits and positives from this year going into the close season."
Renault's rebadged TAG Heuer power unit, which recovered its reliability and performance, played a large part evidently in the team's resurgence. Horner is hoping for additional gains over the winter.
"They are working very hard. If they can make the kind of gain they made over the last winter over this coming winter, then with the stability of the rules hopefully that convergence will start to happen.
"With the chassis hopefully playing a bigger role in next year’s overall package it may balance things up slightly."
While prospects for next season cannot yet be viewed on a relative basis, Horner says his engineering team is happy with the data they have generated to date.
"It is all hypothetical because you don’t know what everybody else has. So all we do is hope to do the best job we can, and worry about the others when we see them in Melbourne."
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