Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has laid out why he and the other bosses believe switching to Honda engines is a better decision than staying with Renault in 2019.

The Milton Keynes outfit confirmed last month they would be ended a rollercoaster 12-year partnership with the French manufacturer highlighted by winning four Formula 1 titles together between 2010-2013.

Since the introduction of the current V6 turbo-hybrids, however, things have turned sour with Red Bull actively seeking an exit in 2015 before having to go back when no other supplier would consider their approach.

But when McLaren wanted to dump Honda last year, it opened an opportunity of the Anglo-Austrian team who gave the Japanese carmaker the chance to stay in F1 by working with junior team Toro Rosso.

This year, reliability has been improved as has performance and it is the quickness of the gains that have impressed Red Bull bosses.

Looking at the Renault situation too, Horner believes the relationship that can be developed with Honda has more potential in the years to come.

"With Renault, we were becoming more and more the customer as inevitably their focus becomes more centred on their own team," he told Autosport.

“The positioning of any box, any juncture on the engine, is dictated by their own works team.

“We have to accommodate whatever Renault at Enstone want to adopt. Sometimes we have to make compromises to accommodate that.

“With Honda, we will have the ability to have the discussions in advance to try to optimise the integration between engine and chassis.

"It was absolutely the right timing to go this different path."

Despite the progress that has been made, however, the performance of Honda remains their weakness as it continues to lag behind all the other suppliers,

"We’d have still won the Grands Prix we won,” Horner insists, with those victories coming in China, Monaco and Austria.

“Honda is within one per cent of our measurement of where we currently are [with Renault but]  there’s still a significant chunk to get to Ferrari and Mercedes."

On addressing that deficit, the Red Bull boss also has more confidence.

“They are earlier on the curve and they have the resource and the capacity. One of the biggest issues that probably Renault have struggled with is probably the financial commitment to the R&D process," he claimed.

“Mercedes have spent a lot of money, and invested heavily, as have Ferrari.

“These power units are extremely complex and you can see now that there are still incremental gains being made with the introduction of each power unit.”