Hamilton's engine whine given short shrift by Horner

Christian Horner had little sympathy for Lewis Hamilton as the Mercedes man left the Belgian Grand Prix bemoaning his power deficit to Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari. Red Bull have long bemoaned Renault's inability to keep pace with the leading teams in the V6 Hybrid era.

Horner's search for a competitive advantage will see Red Bull ditch Renault for Honda in 2019.

Mercedes have ruled the roost since 2014, but Ferrari are challenging their stronghold this year and after following a dominant Vettel home on Sunday at Spa, Hamilton said: "They've got a few trick things going on in the car. I did what I could, we did what we could and we've just got to keep working."

The Silver Arrows' power advantage over the past four years has often been at the detriment of Red Bull, who believe their aerodynamic package to be the best on the grid - their performance at lower-speed circuits does appear to back them up somewhat.

And Horner could not resist a dig at Hamilton's concerns when discussing the positives he would take from seeing the Honda-powered Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly finish ninth at Spa-Francorchamps.

"[Honda] need to make a step. As you can see, Ferrari and Mercedes... just to hear Lewis moaning about Ferrari, I nearly got my violin out!

"But the gap is significant. I think if we just close that, and Honda are making great progress, they're scoring points regularly, Pierre has been very, very upbeat about them and you can see they're making headways."