Red Bull tells F1: Don't write us off

Speaking at the team's new livery launch in London on Wednesday, Horner said that the outfit was far from approaching the campaign in a conservative frame of mind.

And although conceding he did not know how competitive its rebranded Renault engine will be, Horner said he had been impressed with the spirit shown by his outfit about plotting its way back to the front.

"Most people had written Red Bull off for this year, but we're fighters and we're focused on getting ourselves into a competitive position," he said.

"It would be foolhardy to write off a team with the calibre of people Red Bull has."

Crash test aggression

While a number of Red Bull's main rivals had passed F1 crash tests weeks ago, Horner revealed that his team had elected to give itself maximum development time by only going through the process this week.

"We hadn't done any crash tests before Monday this week and completed them all in three days," he said. "The last one about an hour ago!

"We take risks, which perhaps other teams would not dream of, like not having completed a crash test one week before the first test.

"But that is the way we roll. That is the way our DNA is, and the competitive drive there is in this team."

Slow start

With Red Bull only having finalised its engine plans late on, Horner has admitted that the team has not been as well advanced for the season opener as previous campaigns.

However, he believes that a consistent start will give it enough of a platform to come on stronger later in the year.

"We are hoping we will be in Q3 in Australia," he said. "That will be a starting point that we are then building from there."

He added: "It feels like a new era for the team, with a sharp new livery that's distinctive and is going to stand out on track.

"It's going to be a season of evolution for us. It's probably going to be a season of two halves, the first half is going to be less competitive than the second, but we're expecting to make significant progress during the year."

Additional reporting by Valentin Khorounzhiy