Red Bull chief Christian Horner tells Sky Sports News the world champions are comfortable with how their pre-season preparations are going.
RBR chief tells Sky Sports News he's pleased with preparations
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the World Champions' current mood can be described as "content", after they finished on top of the timesheet for the first time this winter at Barcelona on Tuesday.
Sebastian Vettel outpaced Force India surprise package Nico Hulkenberg by 0.175s as the pre-season scheduled moved to the more aerodynamically-demanding Circuit de Catalunya for the first of two back-to-back tests.
After seeing Lotus and Ferrari top the order at the opening test of 2012 at Jerez, Horner typically refused to read too much into the lap times now his team were on top, stressing that they would simply continue to methodically go about their preparations for the first race.
"As you say the times mean very little," he told
Sky Sports News.
"We are trying to work through a programme and gather as much data and information on the car as we can and give the drivers as much of a feel as they can.
"Sebastian's now effectively half-way through his testing - before Melbourne he's only got three days left - so we'll focus on some other bits and pieces tomorrow and then hopefully go into that final test armed with even more information."
The Briton said the team were comfortable with where they currently were with their pre-season schedule - although admitted the chilly conditions that greeted the teams at the circuit on Tuesday were hardly representative of what can be expected at most venues during the season.
"I think at the moment we're content, but you always want more. You always want more laps, you never have enough time in the day - especially with the testing being so condescend this year," Horner said.
"It was a cold start this morning so that plays a little bit of havoc with these cars, they don't like running in very cold conditions. And, of course, there's not many tracks were we run at where it will be two or three degree track temperature.
"But it's the same for everybody so it's just about gathering as much information as you can and running through the different programmes that the engineers have set themselves."
After seeing Mercedes unveil their 2012 car ahead of the first day's running, Horner said Red Bull wouldn't be underestimating the threat that could be posed by the Brackley squad should they have developed a stronger car - adding that they were anyway prepared for another season-long development race at the front.
"They're a good team; they've got some good people there, so it would be foolish to underestimate them. But the stopwatch never lies, so we will see when we get to Melbourne where the pecking order is," he said.
"And then of course the development in Formula 1 is such that it doesn't stand still; it will be a race all through the season to get performance on the car and I'm sure there will be swings and roundabouts for all the teams."
