Red Bull are hoping that engine and chassis upgrades will help them beat Ferrari and Formula One champions Mercedes more often after Max Verstappen’s Spanish Grand Prix victory on Sunday.  
Apart from becoming the sport’s youngest race winner, the 18-year-old Dutch driver secured the former world champions their first triumph since the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix.
It was also the first win since that August afternoon for engine suppliers Renault, even if the Red Bull cars now carry the name of Swiss watch company Tag Heuer after relations with the French manufacturer frayed almost to breaking point last year.  Red Bull have been busy mending fences since then, a necessary move given that nobody else was willing to take Renault’s place, and team principal Christian Horner continued that process on Sunday.  “I have to pay compliments to our Tag Heuer engine partners who have done a great job in making progress,” he said to laughter from reporters.
“I think that with what’s in the pipeline for coming races there’s a lot of reason for optimism. If we get what’s advertised then it’s going to put us in a position at least to race Ferraris every weekend,” he added. “Then, hopefully, we can get into trying to close that gap with Mercedes at certain circuits.”
Renault will be testing an upgraded power unit at the Barcelona circuit this week with plans to introduce it at next month’s Canadian Grand Prix for Red Bull and their own Renault factory team.
Mercedes had won 36 of the previous 42 races until Sunday, with Ferrari the only team to beat them last year. They have dominated the sport since the V6 turbo hybrid power units replaced the V8s in 2014.
Monaco, the slowest of street circuits with its tight and twisty layout, is next up with outright power less important than driveability.  Until Barcelona, Red Bull had considered that classic race their best chance of winning this season.
“If we can find a few tenths on the power unit side, it’s certainly going to be gratefully received,” said Horner, when asked whether Renault might bring the upgrade forward for Monaco.
“Let’s see how the test goes but if there was any opportunity to be even more competitive in Monaco we’d take it. But that’s a decision for the guys from Renault,” he said. “We’ll do the testing and then they will look at the numbers.”

Verstappen gives Ricciardo less to smile about
Barcelona: Max Verstappen’s stunning victory on his Red Bull debut has given teammate Daniel Ricciardo a taste of his own medicine, according to 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.
The 18-year-old Verstappen became Formula One’s youngest race winner at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, with Australian Ricciardo finishing fourth after a strategy error by the team was compounded by a late puncture.
Ricciardo, winner of three races in 2014 when, like Verstappen, he moved up from Toro Rosso to the main Red Bull team, had led after Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided on the opening lap. “The critical point now is what will happen with Ricciardo,” Villeneuve, who took pole and almost won on his race debut with Williams in 1996 as a fresh young teammate to Britain’s Damon Hill, said.  “Right now it’s the reverse situation of when he arrived (at Red Bull) and (Sebastian) Vettel was the driver, except Vettel had four world championships and he doesn’t. His smile will not carry him now,” added the Canadian.
Red Bull put Ricciardo, who had led for 31 laps, on a three-stop strategy at the Circuit de Catalunya while keeping Verstappen on what turned out to be a winning two. The Australian, famed for having the biggest smile in the sport, said after the race he felt victory had been snatched away from him.
“It’s not hard to see Max on the podium but it’s hard for me not to be on the podium, that’s the biggest disappointment,” he said.
“It didn’t make sense,” he added of the decision to switch to a three-stop strategy after Ferrari had done so with Vettel. “It’s frustrating, I think we just threw the win away. Sure I’m bitter right now. Not with Max, not at all, just bitter at the situation.”
Red Bull principal Christian Horner, who saw “uncanny” similarities between Verstappen and a young Vettel, said the Dutch youngster would only grow in confidence but also offered words of support to Ricciardo. “At that point in the race it was far from obvious which was the quicker route to go and we felt Vettel, as the biggest opponent, we would take him on with Ricciardo,” he said of the strategy. “I said it before the weekend and I really believe we’ve got the strongest pairing of drivers in Formula One now,” added Horner. “We’re in a position where things are on the up.”