Christian Horner says Red Bull's underwhelming Brazilian Grand Prix performance was a result of sacrificing performance to ensure its Renault engines ran reliably.
Red Bull came to the race at Interlagos as one of the in-form teams on the grid, having won two of the previous four races. The former world champions were expected to perform strongly but was unable to get involved in the close fight between Mercedes and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen claiming it was losing 0.5s a lap from its Renault power unit, which was the size of his gap to pole position.
Reliability has also been an issue for Renault recently, with Daniel Ricciardo joining both Toro Rosso drivers in serving grid penalties in Brazi, something team boss Horner said impacted the team's approach to the weekend.