• Red Bull news

Christian Horner satisfied with Red Bull form

Christian Horner is not surprised by the pace of McLaren © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News:
• Whitmarsh not underestimating Red Bull threat
  

• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner said that his team exceeded his expectations despite finishing only fourth and fifth at a Canadian Grand Prix dominated by the McLaren drivers.

"Here we've performed better and been more competitive with the McLarens than I expected," said Horner. "The advantage McLaren have at this circuit was always going to be a tall order for us.

"But the pace of our car here has been more than we expected coming into the event, so they were still very valuable points, and there's a long way to go."

A second successive 1-2 for the McLaren Mercedes team means that Red Bull, who had been the car to beat in the earlier rounds, is again playing catch up. But Horner remains unfazed by the situation and expects his team to bounce back strongly in the rounds to come.

"We know we've tracks coming up that will suit us. We have to take encouragement from our performance here this weekend. We tried something different on the strategy, but it wasn't enough to propel us ahead of the McLarens for the whole race, but it made for an interesting race.

"Hopefully we can run strongly in Valencia, which is going to be another challenge for us, but then we come back to tracks that should play more to our strengths. So there's absolutely everything to play for."

Although Horner concedes the Valencia circuit may also play to the strengths of McLaren, he remains optimistic that Red Bull can turn things around in a season that is rapidly becoming a two-horse race.

"Valencia will play to the strengths of McLaren and Mercedes. We thought there would be more Mercedes-powered cars ahead of us, so we've actually managed to limit the damage.

"We've a couple of developments coming. I'm sure we can go there and build on the performance we've had here."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.