Red Bull needs double points to close in on P2 – Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes his squad can target second place in the Formula 1 world constructors’ championship but need consistent strong points from both its drivers following another frustrating race for Pierre Gasly.

While Max Verstappen stormed to victory at the wet German Grand Prix, Gasly was unable to follow his teammate’s pace before a late race clash with Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon saw him fail to finish due to front wing damage.

Despite pressure mounting on the French driver at Red Bull, his DNF at Hockenheim marks his first non-finish since a mechanical retirement at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - ending a run of six races.

But with his best result of the season being fourth place at the British Grand Prix, Horner feels Red Bull needs consistently strong points from both drivers to chase down Ferrari in the standings.

“I think if we can start double scoring that’s our target in the second half of the year to close that gap down,” Horner said, with Red Bull now 44 points behind Ferrari.

“It’s been up and down. Gasly had a strong qualifying. He had a difficult first pit stop, there was a problem with the right-rear wheel nut and then they had to hold him because the whole queue of cars came in.

“He was recovering well, recovering, recovering, recovering, then on the last restart he passed Vettel but went wide on three consecutive laps at Turn 1 and that’s where the other cars got past him.

“And then obviously racing with Albon they tripped over each other which was frustrating because it was a good opportunity to take a lot of points out of Ferrari.

“Instead of taking 20-odd points out of them we’ve only taken seven or eight.”

Red Bull has finished third in the F1 world constructors’ for the past two consecutive seasons but did secure second place in 2016 by beating Ferrari behind champions Mercedes.