Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has congratulated rival outfit Mercedes on the job they did in 2014 after the outfit secured both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships.
Horner, whose team won four championships in a row, had to settle for second best during the 2014 season as they failed to challenge Mercedes’ dominance.
The Briton hailed the team for the work they did, particularly on the power unit, which contributed in putting Mercedes in a strong position from the very first race.
“I think the difference to Mercedes was far bigger than we expected it would be,” said Horner. “We feared that there was going to be a deficit, but nowhere near the scale we saw.
“I think we need to congratulate Mercedes, who have done a truly incredible job with their power unit.
“I think we were in the worst of all situations with Renault in that we were uncompetitive with an unreliable engine. But credit to them for sorting the reliability out on the engine.”
Horner is hopeful that Renault can now close the gap this season and believes the recent changes – with Renault now focusing on Red Bull as its works team – will pay off.
“It’s now the performance deficit that we really need to focus on,” he added.
“I think the philosophy to embrace Red Bull as the works team and to work as a partner as opposed to a customer was what needed changing, because the power unit needs to be fully integrated.”
