Horner: No qualms over FIA probe

The Milton Keynes-based outfit had to supply a report to the FIA on Friday night explaining why the stewards should not consider excluding the team on safety grounds following David Coulthard's spectacular accident in Friday practice.

That report, allied to an inspection of the suspension, was enough to convince the FIA that all was okay with the RB4.

And the fact that neither Coulthard nor Mark Webber suffered any problems throughout the rest of the weekend proved the team's faith in the car was more than justified.

Speaking to autosport.com about the issue, Horner said: "David ran wide at Turn 14 in the race and nothing fell off, so the car is able to deal with the usual parameters.

"As I said earlier in the weekend, we are very comfortable with where we are with the suspension. But we also fully respect the FIA's actions during the weekend, and it being very responsible over safety critical items."

Although Red Bull Racing were delighted to get their first points of the season with Webber's seventh place, Horner felt they would have done even better had it not been for a technical problem with the car.

"We had a strong afternoon with Mark," said Horner. "We had an early issue with an air pump and with the engine, it meant we had to build in a safety factor in our fuel margin.

"So we had to pit what proved to be two laps early in the first stint and then one lap early in the second stint.

"That, combined with an unhelpful Takuma Sato on his out lap cost him ultimately two and a half seconds, which was the chance to beat Heidfeld.

"It was a competitive team performance this weekend. David had a competitive run through to what was ninth, but we are off the mark. All the big boys finished and we were not far away at the end of the day."

He added: "We can see the car is strong in certain areas. In high-speed stuff we look very competent. There are a few areas we need to work on, but we have quite a bit of development in the pipeline."