Red Bull curtails its Formula 1 test day at Jerez again

The reigning F1 champion team has had a difficult first week of running with its car, after struggling with a host of problems on its new RB10.

Its first day of running was delayed by it fitting a part incorrectly, while it has encountered a host of electrical and overheating problems as well.

Engine partner Renault has admitted that some of the issues were its fault, specifically in relation to the energy store, but other problems are understood to relate to the installation of the power unit in the car.

Gary Anderson analyses Red Bull's plight

While potential main title rivals Mercedes and Ferrari continue to rack up the miles in Spain, Daniel Ricciardo's first taste of the RB10 went wrong.

The Australian only got running at lunchtime on Thursday, and then his car stopped before he was able to return to the pits.

He completed just a further two laps over the rest of the day.

With it clear that its problems had not been solved, Red Bull elected to stop running its car early again on Thursday but it hopes to be back in action on Friday.

'WE'RE PRETTY GOOD AT BOUNCING BACK'

As a further sign of the difficulties the team faces, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and technical chief Adrian Newey left the track early in the afternoon without speaking to the media.

In a statement issued by the team, race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum reckoned the outfit could still make up for the lost time.

"We worked hard yesterday to make the changes it was felt were necessary to overcome the problems we identified and we were hopeful of a more successful day today," he said.

"Unfortunately, the measures we took only partially solved the issue and, as with yesterday, it's more sensible to stop and dig deeper into finding a solution.

"It's obviously not where we want to be and naturally the whole team is frustrated by these issues.

"However, we're pretty good at bouncing back from this type of thing. This is where the whole team pulls together and I'm sure we will get these problems fixed."