Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing's chief technical officer, has admitted that packaging problems and a lack of time contributed to the team's problems at the first winter test.
The new RB10 managed just 21 laps over the four-day event, which was held at the 2.75-mile Jerez circuit.
Sebastian Vettel was at the wheel of the car on the opening two days, before handing driving duties over to Daniel Ricciardo.
The blame for the lack of running was originally placed with the team's power-unit supplier Renault. The French manufacturer admitted recently that it is behind schedule, but head of trackside operations Remi Taffin is confident that the issues experienced at the first test are now solved.
Ahead of the second test in Bahrain, Adrian Newey admitted to AUTOSPORT that the aggressive packaging of his new car and a lack of time were also responsible for the Milton Keynes-based outfit's woes.
"What stopped us at Jerez, on our side as opposed to Renault's side, was a problem where the bodywork local to the exhaust was catching fire," he said.
"It's a problem which hopefully we can get on top of ready for Bahrain.
"It was really a lack of time [that caused the problem]. It was something that we could have proved out on the dyno if we had managed to get everything together earlier.
"But Renault have been up against it in terms of their use of the dyno, we have been up against it making the parts in time.
"So I think had we been a couple of weeks further ahead then that could all have been done in private on the dyno. But unfortunately it was done in public."
He added: "Hands up on our side, that was a Red Bull problem. It was, you could argue, a result of aggressive packaging but we felt that we needed to take a few risks to try to get a good package that would minimise the aerodynamic damage of this very large cooling requirement.
"The Renault seems to have a particularly large cooling requirement. Everybody of the three engine manufacturers will have a different target for how hot their charge air is going back into the plenum and Renault have given us a fairly challenging target.
"It has all sorts of advantages if we can get there, but it is not easy to achieve."
He said the packaging demands of the new V6 Turbo power-units have been a challenge, explaining: "The radiator area that we need to cool the charge air from the turbo and additionally all of the extra cooling we need for the electrical side of things, the batteries, the motor generator unit and so forth, the control box... It means that the radiator area is roughly double last year's car with the V8.
"So trying to package that in without compromising the aerodynamics too heavily is a challenge. "
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Sebastian Vettel was at the wheel of the car on the opening two days, before handing driving duties over to Daniel Ricciardo.
The blame for the lack of running was originally placed with the team's power-unit supplier Renault. The French manufacturer admitted recently that it is behind schedule, but head of trackside operations Remi Taffin is confident that the issues experienced at the first test are now solved.
Ahead of the second test in Bahrain, Adrian Newey admitted to AUTOSPORT that the aggressive packaging of his new car and a lack of time were also responsible for the Milton Keynes-based outfit's woes.
"What stopped us at Jerez, on our side as opposed to Renault's side, was a problem where the bodywork local to the exhaust was catching fire," he said.
"It's a problem which hopefully we can get on top of ready for Bahrain.
"It was really a lack of time [that caused the problem]. It was something that we could have proved out on the dyno if we had managed to get everything together earlier.
"But Renault have been up against it in terms of their use of the dyno, we have been up against it making the parts in time.
"So I think had we been a couple of weeks further ahead then that could all have been done in private on the dyno. But unfortunately it was done in public."
He added: "Hands up on our side, that was a Red Bull problem. It was, you could argue, a result of aggressive packaging but we felt that we needed to take a few risks to try to get a good package that would minimise the aerodynamic damage of this very large cooling requirement.
"The Renault seems to have a particularly large cooling requirement. Everybody of the three engine manufacturers will have a different target for how hot their charge air is going back into the plenum and Renault have given us a fairly challenging target.
"It has all sorts of advantages if we can get there, but it is not easy to achieve."
He said the packaging demands of the new V6 Turbo power-units have been a challenge, explaining: "The radiator area that we need to cool the charge air from the turbo and additionally all of the extra cooling we need for the electrical side of things, the batteries, the motor generator unit and so forth, the control box... It means that the radiator area is roughly double last year's car with the V8.
"So trying to package that in without compromising the aerodynamics too heavily is a challenge. "
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