Horner: I signed contract extension with Red Bull

Team principal Christian Horner has revealed that he recently signed a contract extension with Red Bull and reports suggesting his position at the helm of the team was in jeopardy were in way off the mark.

Horner told Sky at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, "I didn’t lose any sleep over it because it is absolutely not true. I recently signed an extension to my contract with Red Bull, I have a great relationship with Dietrich and my goal is very much on getting the team back to the situation we were in 18 months ago."

"It is total rubbish. The thing is not to put too much energy into things like that, but in the world we live in sometimes people from rival teams say things and they get picked up and then a story goes on the internet and it goes from there."

That is the problem with social media – two weeks ago I was taking over from Bernie, this week I was leaving the team, next week I’ll be driving the car probably," joked Horner.

Meanwhile Red Bull have been roundly criticised for blaming their engine partner Renault for the woeful 2015 season, with Horner at times vocal about the shortcomings of their power unit.

He said, “I think what is important for us as a team is to do the best job we can so that hopefully when a step in horse power does come, we are in a position to capitalise and use that."

“So we are focussing as we have in every previous year on developing the car – getting the most out of the car, bringing upgrades to every grand prix and trying by the end of the season to have put a significant amount of lap time on the car.”

The team, based in Milton Keynes, head to their home race at Silverstone with their work cut-out to try and match the top pace set by Mercedes and Ferrari.

Nevertheless Horner sees a glimmer of hope, “I think the horsepower deficit is still a factor at Silverstone, but nowhere near as big as it was in Austria or Montreal, but it is still a factor as you still have long straights."

"Even in Monaco power is a factor. But it will have less of an influence and when we get to Hungary in a couple of weeks it will again have less of an influence."

"So hopefully we should be a bit more competitive and we are pushing hard to hopefully get more development from Renault in the second half of the year," added Horner whose team won the 2012 British grand Prix with Mark Webber.