• Red Bull

Newey admits title push has compromised 2014

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has admitted his team has had to compromise the development of its 2014 car in order to make sure of retaining the title this year.

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull secured both drivers' and constructors' titles at the Indian Grand Prix, and are currently on a role of seven consecutive victories. The dominance since the summer break has been in part due to an extra push in RB9's development and Newey conceded it has come at a cost to the 2014 car.

"I guess in terms of development this year, we felt we were being pushed quite hard by our rivals," he told ESPN. "Ferrari [pushed us] very much at the start [of the season] - Fernando can never be forgotten - and then Mercedes started to look very strong in the mid season.

"We had to keep pushing and we put a lot of work into developing this year's car, which in truth meant some compromise to the development of next year's car, but we felt we needed to do that.

"You could argue with 20:20 hindsight that we could have backed off earlier than we did and put more of our resources into next year, but if we'd done that too early and not got the championship we'd be feeling pretty sick at the moment."

Newey said some of the recent developments to RB9 would transfer over to 2014, but certain aspects will not be relevant under the new regulations.

"Some of what we have learnt will transfer to next year as well because the underlying aerodynamics are still similar. Other bits, unfortunately, have met their natural evolution and can't be applied to next year's regulations."

Asked if Red Bull would be pushed to have the car ready on time, Newey added: "Yes, it's a big effort now from everyone to get the car ready for the first test."

Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.