Christian Horner tells Sky Sports F1 world title run lessened pressure on Red Bull

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has sent a potentially ominous message to the Triple World Champions' rivals by declaring that they head into the new season feeling more relaxed than before.

"We're still a relatively young team and everybody enjoys winning. They enjoy the success and there's a real determination. Formula 1 is the biggest team sport in the world and you only win races and championships by having all of the departments working cohesively together. "We've got great strength in depth here, great character in the team and my role is to make sure we're getting the best out of all areas, everyone knows what the targets are and everyone's delivering what's expected." Although the World Champions' start to winter testing has begun encouragingly - and both Vettel and Mark Webber have declared that the new RB9 is in better shape than the RB8 was at this same stage 12 months ago - Horner reveals he had been prepared for the 2013 challenger to make a delayed introduction. "It's tough and it's been very tough for the design and production guys," he replied when asked about the winter schedule. "The battle in 2012 went all the way down to the last race, so we were developing the car all the way up until Brazil. "It was the latest start we'd ever had and when Adrian [Newey] comes into your office and says 'I think we're running a bit late on the new car' - he's not known for being early at the best of times! "So it's been an amazing effort over the winter period, over the Christmas break in particular to have got the car ready for the first test. Only time will tell if it's enough." But as has become common practice in F1, the Team Principal added that the 'evolutionary' RB9 would still feature a number of significant changes come the first race in Australia in a month's time. "The car's always a prototype, so the car that ran in Jerez last week will be quite different in Melbourne," Horner said. "But that's the same for certainly most of the front-running teams. The pursuit of development will be relentless and will certainly be a key factor in this year's championship. But with the regulations being stable, you get into the law of diminishing returns. The gains you can make aren't quite as big as they were perhaps three of four years ago. So therefore the devil does tend to be in the detail." You can watch an extended version of Natalie's interview with Christian Horner here