Red Bull to run seamless shift in Spain

The team ran without the system for the first three races of the season, to allow dyno work to be carried out at their Milton Keynes factory, but will now run it from this weekend's event.

Red Bull Racing's technical director Mark Smith said: "The relatively late confirmation of the switch to Renault power meant we were not up to speed earlier in some areas, so right from the beginning we decided for logistical reasons to target the Barcelona test for the introduction of our transmission development and happily the testing was successful in this respect."

As well as expected improvements from the seamless shift, the RB3 will also feature a host of aerodynamic developments to help lift its performance. Changes have been made to the front wing, the barge boards, the rear bodywork and cooling exits.

Smith added: "Our plans always included an extensive bodywork update to arrive in time for this race. We also planned to introduce a step forward in transmission performance for Spain.

"On top of that, the first three races had thrown up some reliability issues and the Barcelona test last week means that hopefully we have addressed those too, notably the problem we had with the fuel flap.

"The old design caused us problems at each race so far, either staying open when the car was out on track or staying closed when it should have been open for the pit stops."