Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says they closed the gap to McLaren at Imola by improving their car, not because their rivals got any slower.

The FIA issued a series of technical directives ahead of the last event. Horner refused to confirm they came about as a result of questions Red Bull had raised over aspects of McLaren’s car design.

“There’s another one, I think, about the floor or skids that came around,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “So it is the usual practice that’s going on.”

Red Bull has steadily introduced upgrades to its RB21 since the season began. At Imola it brought a revised engine cover and alterations to its rear suspension.

Horner said the team’s performance in the race showed the changes worked. “We managed to get some performance on the car,” he said. “I don’t think it was McLaren had really lost pace last weekend, it was more we’d found pace.

“That was really, really encouraging, not so much for here but for some of the tracks that are coming up.”

However Horner said Monaco, the scene of this weekend’s race, is such an unusual circuit Red Bull and McLaren could face stronger competition from rival teams.

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“What we’ve seen this year is, I don’t think there’s been a front row that hasn’t been [covered by] less than a tenth [of a second], so it’s going to be super, super-tight,” he said. “And I think there could be some curve balls this weekend.

“You may have Mercedes quick. Ferrari, their car rides the kerbs very nicely. It’s very settled on the bumps. We know how good Charles [Leclerc] and Lewis [Hamilton] are around here, so they could be a real factor this weekend.”

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