Talking to the official F1 website, while playing down the disappointment that there will be no significant upgrade from Renault this year, and insisting that his team is continuing to make progress, one cannot help but feel that behind the scenes the Red Bull chorus of disapproval is preparing for a noisy summer.

In the wake of Cyril Abiteboul's admission that there will be no major upgrade this year - merely a series of smaller improvements - the Frenchman suggesting that talk of the significant upgrade was the work of Red Bull itself, Christian Horner was asked how he felt about the 'news'.

"Well, this is Renault's decision," he told the official F1 website. "We take whatever we can, when we can... for sure we'd rather sooner than later!

"We knew that Montreal would be tricky and so will be the next two races, Azerbaijan and Austria," he admits.

"We will probably introduce our next engine in Austria," he adds, referring to the next unit to be used in terms of its allocation for the season, "and hopefully that will be a bit of a boost as our fuel supplier (ExxonMobil) did a great job finding performance. In this area there is quite a bit of potential."

Asked if the lack of an engine upgrade will see his team try to compensate for this in other areas, he admits: "You always try in all areas. I don't believe that Renault has given up on this year... that's what they have told us. So we are pushing."

As for Abiteboul's claim that there is no "silver bullet". "For us it doesn't change anything," insists Horner. "We are always pushing hard and it is good to see that the last three races showed good progress.

"Nothing surprises me these days," he added. "You deal with the hand that you've got and we will keep on pushing the best we can.

"We are very confident our new partner ExxonMobil will help in performance from that side, and as I said before, the last three races have been promising, so let's see what Baku holds for us."

Asked about the fact that aero number two, is joining Renault, and whether the move was part of a deal between the two companies, Horner says: "It certainly was no deal.

“For promising talents opportunities come up, that is a fact in every organisation," he adds.

A fact is also that Helmut Marko was voicing his - and thereby Dietrich Mateschitz' - unhappiness before the season had barely started, with Horner and Toro Rosso's Franz Tost subsequently joining in.

Now we have Max Verstappen claiming that this season has been "crap" and that, with the lack of a significant upgrade, 2018 will be similar.

Prepare yourselves for a summer of Red Bull discontent… no matter how well the teams does in Azerbaijan, Austria…