Assessing Red Bull’s new role as hunter rather than being the hunted, team
principal Horner said: “It is not an insignificant gap we have to close to
the Mercs, and our focus is just on closing that.
“We started 2012 not in great shape given the change in regulations with the
blown diffuser, we were on the backfoot, but we fought our way back into the
championship.
“We’ll do our very best to do that again this year. The important thing is not
to allow too much of a distance to grow in the first third of the year.
“The problem is, and it’s no secret, we are significantly down on
straight-line performance than Mercedes.
“For the first time we saw their true pace where they obviously went for it,
and they’re not hanging about.
“The guys at Renault [who supply Red Bull’s power unit] know that and are
working on it, and anything we can do to close that gap will only get us
closer to them.
“We just have to keep working at it, nobody is giving up. We know where we
need to improve and we’ll keep pushing.”
Compared to Red Bull’s testing performances in Bahrain a few weeks previously
when it appeared they would be unable to finish a race in the first few
weeks, then the Milton Keynes-based team has made considerable strides in
such a short period.
Horner added: “To achieve what we have been achieving has been seriously
impressive.
“And to nearly get a podium on this type of circuit, that favoured the
Mercedes engine, we couldn’t get any more out of the car, the strategy, the
drivers, the pit stops and the team.
“To get some points on the board is, in many respects, damage limitation, but
we can also draw encouragement from the fact we were pretty competitive at
the end of the race.”
With China next up, which will again favour Mercedes, Horner knows his team
has to be pushing for wins come the start of the European season in early
May with the Spanish Grand Prix.
“In China, Mercedes are again going to be very difficult to beat there given
the kilometre-long straight,” added Horner.
“But then once we get back to Europe we need to start making inroads into
them.”