Red Bull to focus on reliability issues

Although the Adrian Newey-designed RB3 has shown plenty of speed in the first three races, minor issues on the technical front have forced Mark Webber and David Coulthard out of points scoring finishes.

And it is that experience from the start of the campaign that has left Horner adamant that a big effort must now be undertaken to ensure they do not let further opportunities slip through their fingers.

"We need to use the next month to tidy up some issues on the car," said Horner. "And that will be done.

"We've had two frustrating failures that cost us three points. We should be sitting on five points quite comfortably from the first three races and we ultimately haven't come home with them.

"We can't be happy with our performance but we can see that we're going in the right direction and we know the areas we need to improve.

"It's very difficult to draw too many conclusions from the first few races. After BMW there's a very tight group of cars ranging from seventh to 18th. If you get your weekend right, you'll be scoring points, if you get it wrong you'll be some way down the back of it."

Horner does take heart from the strong pace shown by Webber and Coulthard in Bahrain on Sunday - even though mechanical issues forced both cars out.

"It was another sign of progress. We're very encouraged. Look at David's race - it's the best race he's had for some time. The number of cars that he overtook was very positive.

"And when you look at the race pace that Mark had in the first stint, at that point he was quicker than (Giancarlo) Fisichella and Robert Kubica. He definitely had the pace to run with them.

"I think we were genuinely the fourth best car here today and it's just frustrating that we haven't come away with points. But we're pushing the performance envelope and have clearly made progress through the first three races."