'Great things' to come from Verstappen

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is expecting "great things" from Max Verstappen later this season after poor reliability in the first half of the year.

Verstappen has failed to finish on five occasions so far in 2017, with reliability problems accounting for four of those retirements. Of the six races Verstappen has seen the checkered flag, the Dutch driver has yet to finish outside the top five, and Horner believes that consistency bodes well for the remaining races after the summer break.

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"When we introduced the car as RB13 there was a bit of a debate of 'should it be 12A? Should we use the number 13?' and then we came up with the slogan of '13 is lucky for some and unlucky for others,' and you could say it's certainly been more lucky for Daniel [Ricciardo] and unlucky for Max," Horner said.

"But his driving [well], he's just continued to evolve and he's driving at such a high standard now, but the bad luck that he'd endured in four successive races or whatever it was prior to Silverstone, it was just massively unfortunate because in each one of those races he was in a great position.

"He was second in Montreal, he was in a great position in Azerbaijan, again in a great position in Austria as well so very frustrating for him. But he's handled that well and I think it's broadened his shoulders.

"As a 19-year-old he's still a young guy, he hasn't done a huge amount of car racing since he stepped out of karts three or four years ago. He'll actually come out of the other side stronger for it and I'm pretty confident the second half of the year for him you'll see some great things."

Verstappen will be backed by a large Dutch contingent at the Belgian Grand Prix on August 27, but Horner says the teenager is used to dealing with an expectant crowd.

"Well Spa is a big event. It will be packed with orange and Max fans, but it's one of 20 races on the calendar. Yes, there's that added pressure of it being a home event but the contingent that seem to be following him is only growing."