Although the Milton Keynes team had a strong performance at the Dutch GP last weekend, team principal Christian Horner believes the high-speed characteristics of Monza and Sochi will not suit his car as well in two weeks time.
Horner says the two teams’ performance over the past few years suggests his squad will face a much greater challenge before they should get better later in the season.
“Your vehicle and engine package has always been very strong in those two places, and they were weaker places for us,” said Horner.
“So I expect them to have an advantage for the next two races. But after that it should get tricky. Of course I would hope so.
“The next two weekends for us will be to limit the damage and extract as much as possible from the car.”
Although Red Bull has been fairly aggressive with its upgrade push this season, especially in the diffusers space, Horner has suggested that it should now focus more on its efforts around 2022.
Because of this, he suggests that the team won’t bring anything big for Monza and Sochi other than the regular, low-downforce wings that are a must.
“A tremendous effort will be made by 2022,” he said. “Of course there will be Monza wings that all cars will have.
“But we are now at the end of the cycle with this car. But if there are small gains in a certain area you have to give it a try.”
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After the Dutch GP, Horner said that he had the feeling that there was only a 0.1 second difference in performance between Mercedes and Red Bull.
“It’s massively tight, isn’t it?” he explained. “In qualifying [at Zandvoort], it was within a tenth and we seemed to be a tenth, maybe two tenths ahead in the race.
“There will be tracks that will suit Mercedes and there will be tracks that will suit us, I think in the next phase of this championship. So we have to make sure that we take every opportunity.”
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