Red Bull not worried by staff departures

(Red Bull Racing via Twitter)

Red Bull Racing co owner Dietrich Mateschitz has stated that the team are not worried by their disappointing start to winter testing in Jerez this week and has denied claims that it as a result of losing key staff to rival team's over the Winter.

The reigning world champions completed only 21 laps during the four day test after suffering issues with the new Renault Energy Recovery System. That issue was resolved following the first day of testing however, the team continued to encounter issues with the new RB10 and were forced to end day 2 early. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel left the test early on Wednesday and on Thursday following another difficult day team boss Christian Horner and chief designer Adrian Newey headed back to Milton Keynes to find a solution to their car issue.

Two leading members of the team, Peter Prodromou their chief aerodynamicist, and their former head of vehicle dynamics Mark Ellis have both left the team in recent months, Prodromou has joined McLaren while Ellis has joined Mercedes AMG F1.

Despite this, Mateschitz is not concerned and stated that the teething problems are 'no major surprise.' The Austrian arrived at the Jerez circuit on Thursday, the same day that the team had problems with the car. However this was just coincidental as Mateschitz who has been involved in Formula One since 1995 when his company sponsored the Sauber F1 Team has always spent one day at Winter testing and this year was no different.

Red Bull weren't the only team to suffer issues this week as all the team's suffered some sort of reliability issue. This week was used by the teams to work on set up and systems checks and the next test in Bahrain will be used for performance tests. The Mercedes AMG F1 Team seem to be ahead of the game in this regard as Nico Rosberg completed a full race simulation yesterday morning. 

Ferrari also appear to be on top of their car as Fernando Alonso completed a staggering 115 laps yesterday.

The next test in Bahrain will be crucial in discovering who has the upper hand. We will also have all teams present at that test as the Lotus F1 Team will debut their new E22.