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Newey: 2011 form impossible to predict

Red Bull Racing's technical chief Adrian Newey says it is impossible to say whether his team will continue to be the dominant force in 2011 following this year's titles

The Milton Keynes squad took both the drivers' and the constructors' championships for the first time in 2010, as the Newey-designed RB6 car proved to be the car to beat for most of the season.

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever world champion, while team-mate Mark Webber finished in third place in the standings.

Despite this year's strong campaign, Newey is aware that things change fast in Formula 1 and is not making any predictions for next year.

"I think it is impossible to forecast," Newey told AUTOSPORT when asked if he could make the RB7 a better car.

"The truth is - and that is the great thing about motor racing - that things can change very quickly as we all know. If other people do a better job than we do over the winter then it will change."

Newey also warned that the fact that the team has built the fastest car in the past two years does not mean it will continue to be like that in 2011.

"In itself no, I don't think it does - apart from the confidence," he said when asked if the team's form in 2009 and 2010 will count for anything next season.

"But hopefully what it does mean though is that we are starting to understand the process of how you go about designing a decent car and if we can do that, and continue to be creative, then we can come up with a decent car.

"I guess the concern is that as regulations stay stable, and you go deeper and deeper into a set of regulations, then it becomes more of an iterative process. Whether we can iterate as well as some of the more established teams has yet to be demonstrated."

Speaking about this year's car, he added: "When we first came out with the car we weren't really sure where we were going to be with it, to be honest.

"There were some reasonable rule changes over the winter, with the ban on refuelling and the smaller front tyre, and the fact that like most other teams we were developing a car with a double-diffuser by design so it was very difficult to forecast where we were going to end up.

"Through the winter testing we tried to just concentrate on our own programme and not get too phased by what people were or were not doing. We introduced a reasonable package just before the start of the first race and off we went from there."

He admitted he got tired of all the "sniping" from rival teams, who spent a big part of the season complaining about things they were unsure were legal with the Red Bull car.

"It was a season that was a long and hard one, I must admit," he said. "It was marked by a lot of sniping which was a bit tiring after a while more than anything - that people could not just get on.

"It was the usual thing to try and consider it flattery but when you are always being popped at, it does get annoying after a while."

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