Newey: Red Bull 'hunger' key to title

The team's RB5 won its first race in China and has been Brawn GP's closest challenger so far. Lead driver Sebastian Vettel also admitted in the build-up to the Spanish Grand Prix that it was time for Red Bull to start thinking it was gunning for the title.

Although Newey concedes that Red Bull does not have the resources to match the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber, he thinks other factors could come into play.

"I think from a resource side then we are clearly smaller than some of our rivals, but from a hunger and drive side of it then we are going to keep pushing, so what can I say?" said Newey in Spain on Friday. "History will tell in the future."

Newey thinks it is inevitable that the manufacturer teams will keep throwing money at improving their cars over the course of the season, but reckons that the self-belief his team has now after triumphing in Shanghai could be more important.

"I suppose one of the things about getting a bit of success is it gives the team confidence," said Newey. "Red Bull Technology, we did win a race last year obviously at Monza, but I think when the cars are in the same place as the design office, it gives people a bit more confidence. It is more immediate.

"It is a funny thing about winning races. When you are not winning then it looks an impossible task and you can feel sometimes a bit deflated that you can't seem to win a race. If you do win a race, you don't feel you are doing anything differently.

"You have suddenly won a race and it is the old saying - it gets the monkey off your back. From the people at Milton Keynes, who were at Jaguar and are now at Red Bull, we shed that monkey in a way that perhaps they feel it more than when we won the race at Monza last year."

Although Red Bull's title chances will become clearer after it introduces its double-decker diffuser design, potentially at the Monaco Grand Prix, Newey drew short of making any firm predictions that Red Bull could go all the way to winning the world title.

"It's too early to think about that to be perfectly honest," he said. "My attitude in this position is always let's just keep our head down and not worry about what everyone else is doing. We will concentrate on doing the best job we can and see where it takes us."

When asked if he felt Red Bull was a top team now, Newey responded: "It is a team that has been a top team for the last four races. As we all know motor racing is a fast changing business so the challenge now is trying to keep it there."