Red Bull eye 'aggressive' development

The Adrian Newey-designed car has not shown impressive pace in early testing and has suffered its fair share of reliability issues as well.

With only a few days of testing left before the cars head to Melbourne, the team will need to make a dramatic step forward if they are going to be challenging near the front at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

And although a major aerodynamic update will run in their final test at Magny-Cours next week, team principal Christian Horner admits that the biggest improvements will come much further down the road.

"Let's say we are not where we want to be," he told autosport.com.

"We will have the latest upgrade at the Magny-Cours test next week. That will be a significant aero update but we are about four weeks behind at the moment."

Horner believes the team are currently paying the price for not running an interim car during early winter testing.

"We started with a clean sheet, with a new engine and new electronics. So we are only scratching the surface of this car.

"It is not an evolutionary car, but a revolutionary one. Of course, we have teething problems to deal with such a new car, and it is hard to know where we are.

"There will be an aggressive development through the season that will move us forward. And I am confident we will stride forward.

"There is going to be a huge fight. Everyone is so tightly packed."