Red Bull boss Christian Horner insists that he is happy with his team's performance at the Canadian Grand Prix despite losing more ground to rivals McLaren.
McLaren picked up a second consecutive one-two at the Montreal circuit and now lead the fight for the constructor's title by 22 points, but Horner said it was the result he was expecting and is happy to have not finished further behind.
"Here we've performed better and been more competitive with the McLarens than I expected," said Horner. "The advantage McLaren have at this circuit was always going to be a tall order for us.
"We thought there would be more Mercedes-powered cars ahead of us, so we've actually managed to limit the damage. The pace of our car here has been more than we expected coming into the event, so they were still very valuable points, and there's a long way to go."
Horner expects the McLarens to be the team to beat in Valencia in two weeks, but with 11 races still remaining insists that there is still everything to play for.
"Hopefully we can run strongly in Valencia, which is going to be another challenge for us, but then we come back to tracks that should play more to our strengths," he said.
"We're not even halfway through the season, and there is absolutely everything to play for."
The 22-year-old Sebastian Vettel, with just a single win in 2010, has borne the brunt of Red Bull's disappointments this season, including a gearbox problem in Montreal, but remained calm and said there is no reason to panic.
"You can see how quickly things can change in this sport. With two good races you're back or not. If you convert the points to the old system then you can see the gap is not very big, and the gaps might look bigger than they are.
"I would say there is no reason to panic. We are looking forward to the next race -- we expect a step forward from our side and some new parts."
His Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, 33, also remained upbeat and backs his team to remain competitive throughout the remainder of the season.
"This was a one-off race," he said. "It is not the end of the world by any means. We expected it to be a tough venue for us, and we were closer than we thought.
"We are looking forward to a lot of other races on the calendar, and the team has done very well up to now."
Copyright 2010 AFP American Edition
