Red Bull blame tyre issues for poor form

The Milton Keynes team have failed to score any points in the last four races and have dropped to sixth place in the standings following a strong first half of the year.

Horner said Red Bull's rivals have been doing a better job handling their tyres, but he reckons they have not found more performance than his own team.

He is confident, however, that Red Bull will be back on form this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix.

"Tyres are proving to be the biggest factor at the moment," said Horner. "Over the past couple of months, Toyota has looked very strong tyre wise in the higher temperatures. It's not a case of our rivals suddenly 'bolting on' more performance. It's down to tyre useage and they have handled that better than us.

"We have understood why this happened and I feel we can get on top of this situation and return to our earlier form for the final third of the season, hopefully starting this weekend in Spa."

Horner believes the Spa circuit should suit their car better than previous tracks.

"I think so, as apart from anything else, there are a lot more high speed corners than in Budapest or Valencia," he added. "We had a good test in Monza and although that was aimed primarily at the Italian Grand Prix, the results of the test answered several fundamental questions about our package.

"We need to go there and attack the weekend, we need both our drivers to be on top of their game, aiming to finish in the points.

"At the moment, the section of the grid that includes, BMW, Renault, Toyota, ourselves, Williams and now, Sebastian Vettel, is extremely tight and, as we've seen at the last few races, one tenth of a second can make the difference between four grid positions.

"Even with the long lap at Spa, I think we can expect a very tight grid, while the early Autumn weather, the race taking place a weekend later than usual, can add further unpredictability."