Mateschitz denies staff exits have hurt Red Bull team

Dietrich Mateschitz

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has denied that the exit of some leading technical personnel to rival Formula 1 teams is a factor in his squad's worrying start to 2014.

The champion team was at the foot of both the timesheets and the lap count at the end of the first week of 2014 testing at Jerez.

An assembly error that delayed Sebastian Vettel's emergence on the opening day, and myriad issues with both the Renault engine, its control systems and its installation in the RB10 meant Red Bull had to stop running early on the other three days, completing just 21 laps over the week.

Red Bull's chief aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou agreed to join McLaren last year, with former head of vehicle dynamics Mark Ellis and chief simulation engineer Giles Wood then leaving for Mercedes.

But Mateschitz was adamant the staff changes have nothing to do with Red Bull's current plight.

Adrian Newey has assured Mateschitz that the RB10 "is more than just state-of-the-art." That statement should send chills down the spines of McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

"The current problems arose from the engine side and not from our team, which still has the high-level know-how it needs," he said.

"These teething problems came as no big surprise," said Mateschitz.

"We had expected a difficult first test and now the problems have to be fixed for the Bahrain test."

He added that technical chief Adrian Newey had assured him that the RB10 "is more than just state-of-the-art".

"However, the truth arrives when we are all on the grid in Melbourne," Mateschitz said.

"It is up to us and Renault to solve the problems and get ready.

"There is no reason to be worried yet." Autosport.com