Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner says that the team is still “working flat out” to improve the RB20 and knows what areas it has to focus on in order to find performance.
Red Bull still leads both World Championships, but McLaren has cut its advantage, and the Milton Keynes outfit has been beaten to victory in the last four races.
However Horner pointed out that Max Verstappen was still comfortably fastest in qualifying at Spa, and could have won the race without his PU grid penalty.
“The whole team is still working flat out on this car,” said Horner. “Because with stable regs, whatever we learn now is relevant to next year anyway.
“And if you reflect on the on the first part of the year now, we’re over half distance, we’ve won seven Grands Prix. We’ve won two or three sprint races. We’re leading both championships. But over recent weeks that constructors’ [lead] has diminished somewhat, and that’s where our focus is.
“I think we know what we need to, where we need to focus and improve. And that’s what everybody’s doing.
“We took the pole [at Spa] by six-tenths. It was a very dominant display. And I think had Max started from the pole. it’s then a completely different race.
“But we took the penalty. We got damage limitation out of it. I think with Checo we need to work with him and continue to support him to understand what isn’t quite working at the moment.”
Horner says that it was inevitable that the top teams would close up after a period with stable regulations, and with gains from development getting ever more marginal.
“Inevitably, you get to the top of the curve,” he said. “And we have less wind tunnel time than anybody because of the system of the ATR. And that’s normal. You will continue to get convergence throughout next year as well.
“I think everybody’s getting to the top of the curve. And one week, it’s Mercedes, one week it’s McLaren, one week it’s Red Bull. Ferrari have popped up for a while. So it keeps moving around.”
Horner suggested that the competitive situation will continue to the end of the current regulations before the big changes for 2026.
“I think it’s great for the sport, and it was almost inevitable,” he said. “When you get consistency of regulations, you always get convergence.
“If you look through the history of F1, I remember when I first came into F1 Ron Dennis banging that drum back in 2005. He had the best car at that time.
“But convergence has always brought the teams together. And of course, we’ve got a big regulation changes in 2026 that will cause divergence. But between now and then, for the next 18 months, it’s going to be flat out between the four teams.”
