Red Bull extend testing programme

The team had originally planned to finish their pre-season preparations at Barcelona last week but cold weather and rain, allied to reliability problems with their Ferrari-powered RB2, hampered their running so much they have decided to attend the Valencia test this week as well.

Sporting director Christian Horner remains hopeful, however, that the team are slowly getting back on track with their programme after the cooling problems on the RB2 that hit their early running.

Revised bodywork introduced recently has helped overcome some of their dramas, with Christian Klien able to set the fourth fastest time in testing last Friday, although a lot of focus now needs to go into overcoming niggling reliability issues.

"The new bodywork we introduced is doing what it is supposed to do and RB2 has obvious potential which we are now beginning to see," said Horner.

"Klien did a decent lap (on Friday) in testing which proves the car has got speed. The engineers have a good understanding of how the car reacts to set-up changes and the drivers are growing in confidence in its abilities.

"Everyone in the team is working flat out to be as well prepared as possible for Bahrain and the final test in Valencia will give us more track time to smooth out a few rough edges in the overall package."