Red Bull look to banish reliability woes

The Milton Keynes-based squad have experienced a year of highs and lows with their RB3 - the first car designed by the pen of chief technical officer Adrian Newey.

But despite the flashes of speed the car has shown, a spate of gearbox and hydraulics failures has cost the team valuable points over the course of the season.

Eight retirements for David Coulthard and Mark Webber through mechanical issues mean the team are currently sixth overall in the constructors' championship, six points behind Williams and four ahead of Toyota.

And although there is everything to play for in the fight for fifth place, Webber's retirement with a differential problem in Turkey - the only retirement of the afternoon - has highlighted that RBR still have some way to go to think the issues are completely sorted yet.

Horner certainly expressed some frustration in the wake of Istanbul, where a differential seal failed on Webber's car, which then caused the hydraulics to lose pressure.

"Reliability over the previous four or five faces has generally improved significantly, especially over the opening few races," he said. "So it's frustrating to have a failure like this one."

And Horner says the team are not taking those frustrations lightly, with an overhaul of the gearbox being planned for the new season - when new rules mean the units have to last for four races.

"The fundamentals of the gearbox are being closely looked at for next year," he told autosport.com. "Obviously that's a different discipline as it will have to do four races.

"I'm confident; I understand what the issues have been and it's a matter of addressing them through good design. And we have the right tools and people to do that."

Horner is keen to point out, however, that the emphasis on improved reliability does not signal a move away from focusing on speed and the adoption of a conservative approach.

"I don't think so," he said. "The way that gearboxes have evolved, I think the biggest challenge will be introducing the new electronics system. Obviously, the team are already hard at work so it shouldn't be a major issue for us.

"Obviously, we've had a couple of issues that we've looked to tidy up as the season goes on. We understand what they've been, but obviously within the new gearbox casing for next year, the rectifications for that will be designed into it at the concept stage.

"And that's being applied at the moment. The electronics will certainly run before Christmas but the gearbox and transmission will only run for the first time on the circuit in the back of RB4 in January."

The quest for improved reliability does not mean the team are sacrificing all their efforts on the RB3, though - even though some teams have now shifted all development work to their 2008 cars.

"We've got a solid platform from which to be working from and we will keep developing the car until the end of the year and that will evolve into RB4," continued Horner.

"The design is already well underway but there's a lot we can learn from this car that will carry through so we will keep pushing through to the end of the year - which is a different position to which the team has been in previously.

"We've got updates for Monza, Spa and for Japan so there's quite a busy schedule ahead of us."

And it is the evolutionary steps that the team have planned for next year, with a stable design team, driving line-up and engine, that gives Horner reason to feel encouraged.

"There are certain paths we are following for next year's car and it will be the first time that there's been an evolution of the car," he said. "Obviously the car has shown very encouraging flashes of pace this year, and both drivers qualified outside the top 10 at only three races.

"Unfortunately reliability has let us down and we haven't scored as many points as our potential has been. And that's an obvious area we need to improve on for next year.

"But we've got a solid base to work from and Adrian knows where to improve and is working hard. And Geoff (Willis) will help us to address some of the design processes.

"As the company's grown considerably over the last 24 months, there's a design process and culture in place to capture reliability - and that ultimately comes from good design."