• Mugello test

Red Bull getting stronger - Horner

Sebastian Vettel set the second fastest time of the Mugello test © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Drivers:
• Christian Horner
• |
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is confident his team has made progress at the Mugello test and is hoping to build on Sebastian Vettel's recent success in Bahrain at the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.

By its own high standards, Red Bull had a slow start to 2012, but the RB8 came good at the fourth round of the season in Bahrain when Vettel qualified on pole and won the race. Over the last three days the team has been refining the performance of the car at Mugello and, while Horner thinks the sharp end of the grid is still very competitive, he is confident Red Bull has made a step forward.

"I think it's tremendously tight," he told Sky Sports News. "The first four races have had four different winners from four different teams and that's demonstrated how close this season's Formula One is. Bahrain was obviously a strong race for us and we feel we've made some progress with the car and hopefully we can take a few lessons from here and apply them in Barcelona in a couple of weeks."

After completing 106 laps on Thursday and setting the second fastest time of the test, Vettel is also optimistic.

"It's been a useful couple of days and I've enjoyed the track a lot," he said. "As usual we now have a lot of data to get through and that will take some time. We tried a few things and the results look encouraging; it's always difficult to tell whether we improved and by how much, but we got some good laps and some good information."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.