2013 push 'will benefit' Red Bull in F1 2014

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel faced tougher opposition from rival F1 teams like Mercedes before the summer break, but the German and his outfit have proved unbeatable since then.

Vettel has taken six straight victories to secure his fourth title, while Red Bull took its fourth constructors' crown in India too.

Although new rules will be introduced from next year, Mateschitz is sure the time spent developing this year's all-conquering RB9 will not hurt the team next year.

"It has always been our plan and strategy to develop the car constantly, to bring in new parts for every race, to keep the development work permanently on top level," said Mateschitz.

"This worked out again. And we do not believe that this is just an investment in this year's campaign but will also benefit us for next year.

"Though we have different conditions in 2014 I assume that 50 per cent of the recent development work will help us next season, plus/minus a couple of per cents.

"The rest is open, and it might go wrong, but we have a solid basis to work on."

The team's technical chief Red Bull Adrian Newey admits, however, that perhaps Red Bull pushed its development more than it needed given how the second part of the season has turned out.

"Ferrari started off well and this season Mercedes seemed to be making very good strides and you were worrying that their development rate would overtake us and we could be on the back foot - so we kept pushing," said Newey.

"Arguably, with 20/20 hindsight, you could argue that we pushed more with the 2013 car than we needed to because all the time we were working on the 2013 car we weren't working on the 2014 car.

"Equally if we had gone the other way and backed off too early and been pipped we would have felt very sick."