Red Bull team principal Christian Horner accepts an unlikely podium ඣwon’t act as too much frustration as he saw the funny side to Renaul🍒t’s double DNF denying Max Verstappen a late attack for third place against Charles Leclerc.

With long-time race-leader Leclerc l๊imping to the Bahrain Grand Prix chequered flag with an engine issue, Verstappen had been on course to catch the Ferrari driver and grab the final rostrum spot. But when both Renault drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo suffered simultaneous engine failures with three laps to go a late safety car was triggered to effectively neutralise the end of the race.

It denied Verstappen any opportunity tꦿo attack Leclerc and therefore miss the podium which led to Horner jokingly blame Renault. Red Bull cut ties to an unhappy engine partnership with Renault last year, starting a new deal wit❀h Honda this season, when the French manufacturer was often held responsible for its underperformance.

“Renault blowing up unfortu🧔nately didn’t help us see the podium! It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Horner said. “Whether they’re in the car oꦡr out of the car!

“But yeah, could it have been a Virtual Safety Car? It’s difficult. With two cars on circuit so I think the race operations h༺ave bꦛeen fine.”

Horner believes more pressing solutions need to be found at Red Bull Honda having struggled to find a s⛎trong setup a🌟nd balance with its car throughout the Bahrain race weekend.

“We just don’t seem to have been able to extract the most out of the tyres in both qualifying and the race. How much is that effected by the wind, it’s difficult to say,” he said. “I think the꧑ wind affected us badl⛄y, to a greater or to a lesser extent than other teams, I don’t know but it seemed to hurt our car quite a lot here.

“But I think the drivers have 🥃done a good job to get the most out of the car. But when you listen to🐟 their comments they’re not in a happy window at the moment with where the car is capable of being.

“I think generally when you’re chasing issues ♛like that and you’re moving a problem ar✱ound it’s - usually the points finger in other areas. I think we’ve to a lot of good data from this weekend and starting to understand areas that we need to be focusing on.”