Red Bull has faith in 'different' 2017 Formula 1 car concept

Tipped as the outfit most-likely to capitalise on F1's new regulations and challenge Mercedes, Red Bull opted against a complicated design for its RB13.

It instead went for a more simplistic, low-drag solution that makes it quick in a straightline, but drivers have found that the car lacks rear grip.

Red Bull's early-season form has duly not been strong, failing to qualify inside the top four in either of the first two races and its best finisher Max Verstappen crossing the line 28.827 seconds and 45.192s adrift in Australia and China.

Team principal Christian Horner is still confident that the approach will pay off.

"I think the philosophy that we have pursued and adopted is slightly different to the competitors and we still believe in the potential of that," Horner said, when asked by Autosport about what's gone wrong.

"I don't think we have managed to extract the performance that we believe the car is capable of yet, and the development path should allow to open up.

"So hats off to Mercedes and Ferrari. They have both come up with very strong cars, but I am confident we can hopefully get into that fight a bit later in the season."

Red Bull's form is not helped by its engine partner Renault playing catch up, but power unit updates planned around the time of the Canadian Grand Prix are expected to help.

Horner suggests that it will not be until "probably mid-season" that Red Bull itself can expect to be joining the fight right at the front.

"I think hopefully the second half of our season will be a lot more competitive than the first half of our year," he said.

"Our focus is taking it race by race. We are not looking too hard at championship tables at this point of time.

"It is more, how do we reduce that gap and how quickly can we do it?

"It is clear that Lewis [Hamilton] and Seb [Vettel] are in the quickest packages at the moment and obviously we want to join that party as quickly as we can."