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F1 Hungarian GP: Red Bull winding up upgrades with 2017 focus

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says it is reeling in its current season developments to shift more focus on to next year, after Renault confirms no further power unit updates would be ready until 2017.

Horner's squad has continued its pursuit of Ferrari for second in the F1 world constructors' championship and moved to just a single point behind in the teams' standings after both Red Bulls finished ahead of a Ferrari each in Hungary.

The Milton Keynes-based squad is still focused on catching Ferrari this season but will have to achieve the goal with only a small scattering of updates during the second half of the campaign.

Renault's Remi Taffin confirmed in Hungary the French manufacturer does not plan to introduce any further updates this season while Horner says Red Bull's upgrades are unlikely to be game changers.

"We have some fuel and some tuning and drivability that there is definitely performance to come from," Horner said. "We're quite confident that they'll still be some steps of performance by tidying up what we actually have.

"I think there is obviously bits that we've got in the pipeline but a lot of focus is already on 2017. We're also keen to ensure we challenge Ferrari and to make sure that we fight them all the way until Abu Dhabi."

Having conceded the Renault power unit is still 35 kilowatts (47bhp) down on Mercedes, Horner is looking for Red Bull to continue its push on chassis and aerodynamic gains to compensate for the deficit.

"I think that Renault have made some great steps. It's how it works in harmony with the chassis," Horner said. "I think we know that we are 35 kilowatts behind, that's what the Renault guys tell us, and we know the plans they have in place to close that gap down."

On Friday at the Hungaroring, Renault confirmed the next scheduled power unit upgrade is timetabled for the start of 2017 in preparation for the regulations revamp.

"It will be next year. The big step we will have will be next year's engine, race one," Taffin said. "Until we get to the end of the season now we will be working on the specification we have now, trying to extract the most out it, but there won't be any more let's say big step as we had for race one and six."

Zdroj: crash.net