With the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, I had the chance to join a roundtable discussion with the Team Principal from Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner. 

It has been an atypical year for Horner and Infiniti Red Bull Racing currently sitting in second place in the Constructor’s championship, 141 points behind Mercedes. They’ve had it easy for the last four seasons winning four-consecutive constructor’s championships. It’s new territory for Horner with the team having to be the hunter, as opposed to being the hunted.

Horner doesn’t sugar coat the start of the year and realizes the team needs to make up a lot of ground. However, he does believe they’ve made tremendous strides over the last couple of months and will be working hard to improve on that in the coming races.

Horner faced some tough questions that centered on Red Bull’s Renault engines. He explained that they’re not going to be switching engines after the year, but seemed to give a warning to Renault that they better shape up.

“Renault put us on the back foot at the start of the year and they need to close those gaps,” Horner said. “It’s not good enough for them to be just a supplier; they [Renault] have to be good to be in Formula One.”

When you’re used to winning, the question of team morale is imperative when the chips are down. Horner shook off any notion of morale issues and believes his four-time driver’s champion Sebastian Vettel will come out even stronger after this rough start. 

Another bright spot with the team is the driver relationship between Vettel and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo.

“It’s a world of difference,” Horner said. “The drivers actually get along on and off the track and have a mutual respect for each other.” 

This is a big change from the heated tension that existed between Vettel and former Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber. 

Infiniti Red Bull Racing will try to get their first win of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix, but it won’t be easy to get ahead of the Mercedes-duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who have once again been around the top of the charts for both Friday practice sessions.