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Q & A with Christian Horner

Q. Is this another Newey masterpiece?

Christian Horner: With such a big regulation change, it is quite interesting the different approaches that the teams have taken. Strategically, we decided to take a little bit more time in the tunnel and always focused on launching today. Adrian and his team have done a stunning job, the car looks excellent and hopefully that will translate into laptime.

It's obvious that the approach we have taken is somewhat different to other teams and only time will tell. It will only be Melbourne before we see where the teams are in the pecking order.

Q. It must be exciting because it's an opportunity with so many changes to bridge that gap?

CH: It's the biggest regulation change in 20 years. It's a significant change, it's new technology with items such as KERS, it's a welcome return to slick tyres so from a technical perspective it's very interesting. From an operational point of view we've got two strong drivers, we're delighted to welcome Sebastian Vettel into the team whose rise to stardom last year was meteoric and we hope to give him the platform to continue to develop that. I'm sure Mark is going to be a very strong teammate for him. As a pairing, it's a very attractive line-up for Red Bull Racing.

Q. Who has the bigger challenge, Mark or Sebastian?

CH: It's going to be fascinating to see how that evolves. There's not many drivers to rival Mark over a single lap. He's got a bit of a challenge as he's getting back to fitness. It's probably going to be swings and roundabouts during the course of the year but ultimately they will push each other very hard and bring the best out of each other. We're very happy with the driver line-up. They get on well. The most important thing is the net result for the team of having two competitive cars.

Q. When the time came to start work on the car - what brief was Adrian and his team given?

CH: There were no instructions. The brief is completely Adrian's to design and build the fastest car that you can. His interpretation of the regulations has been slightly different to the other teams. The car looks fantastic, but the bottom line is how it runs on the track. We've got a good basis. He will never be totally happy, but I know that he's reasonably happy with the way that things have gone during the last six months. Time will tell.

Q. Is this the watershed year in which you find out just how successful it has been bringing Adrian in?

CH: I think that the fact the design group designed a car that won a Grand Prix gives them a huge amount of confidence. The group has got stronger and stronger the longer it has worked together - it's now entering its third year. That's critical, especially in a young team.

The difference is when Adrian went to McLaren and Williams, they were very much established teams that he was supplying the engineering direction to. With Red Bull Racing we have built something very much from scratch so the process has inevitably been longer but I think that we now have the core ingredients and hopefully in RB5 we will start to realise that potential.

Q. You've stepped up the facilities over the past few years even though your budget has been cut. How have you built them up?

CH: The facilities in Milton Keynes are unrecognisable to where they were two and a half years ago in terms of manufacture, R&D and design tools. We've invested strategically in the factory and facility and I think that the regulation changes have a less draconian effect on Red Bull Racing then they do on other teams because we haven't carried the fat that perhaps other bigger team has.

We are well positioned for the future. What the regulations do do is to create a reasonably level playing field. The challenge this year is if you start the season slightly behind, to develop the car during the season with no in-season testing with only Friday running is going to be quite a challenge and stretch the engineers to the maximum.

Q. What's the impact of cost-cutting internally? Have you shed staff?

CH: As with every team in the pitlane there has been a slight contraction due to the reduction in activities. Obviously when you are not going testing your test team effectively becomes redundant in many aspects. We now have just a race team and if the individuals have not moved into other projects, such as a show car project for example, then there will inevitably be a few redundancies.

Probably to a much lesser extent than other teams simply because we didn't have the size in the first place. But every team in the pitlane will be facing a downsizing to some degree greater or lesser because of the reduced activities. When you look at the calendar now compared to 12 months ago when the cars were running pretty much every week, now there are more holes in the calendar and that in turn controls costs.

Q. When you say a few, do you mean less than 20?

CH: We are probably in that sort of area. In the region of 20.

Q. How much of a concern is it that one team gets it right and is ahead?

CH: Hopefully it's us. We're hoping for a really boring year where we win all the races.

Q. On costs, is there a knock-on effect for suppliers?

CH: Inevitably, because you're using less components because you are not doing anywhere near the mileage. So inevitably your supply chain comes down and it enables us to do more production in-house with a lower overhead than going in-house. As a business, we have become more efficient by taking on more internally, which has worked very well for us.

Q. Will that be noticed in races like Monaco where the glitz of Red Bull is toned down?

CH: I don't see that the man in the grandstand or paddock will see any difference. You can see coming here today there are still the same amount of trucks as there was 12 months ago. Formula One costs had spiralled out of control and the teams have acted responsibly with the FIA in the first instance to dramatically reduce and control costs in 2009 with further measures being looked at for 2010 and beyond.

Q. Are you going to be able to introduce KERS at the start of the season?

CH: We are very much working hand in hand with Renault. They seem very optimistic that they are going to be able to make Melbourne. We will only put KERS in the car when it proves itself on the stopwatch. It puts an emphasis on pre-season testing because we won't have the chance to test it post the first race. We have obviously a non-KERS solution, but we will be testing KERS extensively and will make a decision after the last test.

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