Red Bull has a car at its disposal that is capable of winning the final two Formula One races of the 2017 season, according to team principal Christian Horner.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit has made big progress in the second half of the campaign, enabling Max Verstappen to claim two victories in the last four races -- with his latest coming at the Mexican Grand Prix. Further strong results in Japan and Austin have helped the Dutchman overcome the string of reliability issues he faced earlier in the year to become F1's top scorer across the past four events.
However, Red Bull's 2017 reliability curse appears to have shifted onto teammate Daniel Ricciardo's RB13, with the Australian forced into retirement in the last two grands prix. Engine supplier Renault suffered a spate of failures across the Mexico weekend, but Verstappen said the nature of his dominant victory is proof Red Bull can now fight for wins at any circuit.
When asked if he believed Red Bull can challenge Mercedes and Ferrari for victories in the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, Horner replied: "Yes. Subject to penalties. The last four races we have had the quickest car on a Sunday. Hopefully Brazil can be a good track for us and why not Abu Dhabi? It would be great to finish the season with at least one more victory."
Red Bull struggled to adapt to the aerodynamic regulation overhaul during the winter and hit a number of set-backs heading into 2017, which Horner said put the team around two month's behind its rivals. Though he hopes a period of regulation stability, coupled with the improvements Red Bull has made in recent months, can place his team in a better position to challenge from the off in 2018.
"We have got regulation stability, so the lessons from RB13 will go into 14. We are hopeful on the engine side that performance and reliability will improve. We have demonstrated we have a really competitive chassis since Hungary. If we can take these learnings into next year's car, we can start on a strong footing rather than the second or so we were off at the beginning of the year."