Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that the team needed 40kW of more power to take a title challenge to Mercedes and Ferrari in 2018. The energy drink squad finished the season in third place for the second consecutive year.
Both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen won two races each over the course of the campaign, but didn’t have the equipment to boast a title challenge. Red Bull will switch to Honda power units in 2019, ending its long-standing relationship with Renault.
The relationship between Red Bull and Renault has been strained in recent years, with the latter failing to produce an engine capable of competing against Mercedes, and in the last couple of seasons, Ferrari.