Coulthard heaps praises on Newey

Newey worked with Coulthard for most of the latter's career, and all of Coulthard's 13 Grand Prix victories were achieved in Newey-designed cars, both in Williams and McLaren.

But Coulthard said the years have not waned Newey's input and capabilities, although his contribution to Red Bull Racing's car performance may not become evident immediately.

"Adrian came to the test in Jerez this week," Coulthard said at the Autosport International Show, "and it was great to see him with his headset on, his clipboard out, and he was taking notes, and occasionally he'll come and try and play a part in the engineering of the car as well.

"He's just an absolute all-rounder; he can design, he can drive - he does some hobby racing - and he can race-engineer a car.

"It's just a natural talent. There's always exceptional people in any sport, in any field. And clearly for more than a decade Adrian has been the leader in his field. As I said, an all-rounder, because he's not just on the drawing board back in an office, theorising how quick a racing car can be.

"He likes to be at the race track, he likes to deal with the problems that are real, inherent in making a race car achieve a fast lap time.

"So I think that this enthusiasm and that experience will take the team forward. As to how quickly his influence will play a part in the success of the team? We just need to get into the season first.

"At the moment, we don't know whether we're going to be more competitive than last year, or whether we're going to be worse of. We won't know that until we get to Bahrain."