Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has again defended the decision to switch to Honda engines for 2019, suggesting the partnership will be more beneficial than with Renault.
The debate continues as to whether the Milton Keynes outfit has made the right call, with even Daniel Ricciardo admitting it is his main thought as he considers whether to re-sign for 2019 and beyond.
There has even been claims that junior team Toro Rosso could be used as a test bed for the rest of the season, however, looking further into the future and based on the direction the respective partnerships would have been going in, Horner believes one key factor will prove critical.
“With where we currently are with Renault, the positioning of any box, any juncture, on the engine, is dictated by their own works team,” he told Motorsport.com.
“We have to accommodate whatever Renault at Enstone want to adopt. Sometimes we have to make compromises to accommodate that.
“With Honda, we will have the ability to have the discussions in advance to try to optimise the integration between engine and chassis.”
While also acknowledging the Japanese manufacturer remains the slowest of the four suppliers currently on the grid, the Red Bull chief also insists the team would be no worse than they are currently.
“We’d have still won the Grands Prix we won because Honda are within one per cent of our measurement of where we currently are,” he claimed.
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And the room for improvement is also seemingly greater…
“They are earlier on the curve and they have the resource and the capacity. One of the biggest issues that probably Renault have struggled with is probably the financial commitment to the R&D process,” added Horner.
“Mercedes have spent a lot of money, and invested heavily, as have Ferrari.
“These power units are extremely complex and you can see now that there are still incremental gains being made with the introduction of each power unit.”
