Red Bull boss Christian Horner has refused to be drawn on his team’s title chances for 2015, but confirmed that his squad has reasons for optimism.
Last year Red Bull’s run of four F1 championship doubles was ended by the dominant Mercedes outfit, with Red Bull impeded particularly both by a difficult start in pre-season testing as well as having a Renault power unit thought to be far less potent than the Mercedes.
Speaking at a team event attended by Grand Prix Times, despite the clear potential for improvement for this year Horner refused to be drawn on what would represent success for the team in 2015.
“Everything’s relative isn’t it? We have to get the best out of ourselves, we have to get the best out of the each Grand Prix that we attend,” said Horner.
“It depends what your start point to what your finishing point is,” he explained. “Last year our starting point was horrendous; our finishing point was second in the Constructors’ World Championship. So last year wasn’t a disaster…relatively from where we started to where we finished it was a huge achievement by the team.”
When asked if all of the improvements found over the winter could help Red Bull improve to the point of being able to take the title fight to the Mercedes this season, Horner said: “That’s the big question isn’t it? Mercedes are for sure the benchmark, they go in as the reigning champions, as the favourites.
“Obviously for this year they had a significant advantage at the end of last year. I think hopefully we will have made significant inroads into that advantage but the question is what have they [Mercedes] have done over the winter? What have the other teams done? I think I know where we are. But until you get to Melbourne, or really have seen the first three or four races, you won’t get to really see a pattern of what the running order is.”
