Red Bull are slightly ahead of schedule with its 2018 car, with it expected to be completed five days earlier than their current RB13 and although team boss Christian Horner admits that's a small margin, he expects it to produce "valuable" benefits.
Red Bull are known to complete their car just days before pre-season testing kicks off, or to even skip the first test altogether to have the maximum amount of development time with its new car.
However its drivers believe that has created issues, such as Red Bull's slow start to the 2017 season in which the team had correlation issues between its wind tunnel and on-track data, which wasn't rectified until several races of the season had passed.
Only recently have the team begun challenging Mercedes and Ferrari, having won two of the last four races.
"We are focusing on a slightly earlier release target, which only involves about five days, but the design is so concertinaed and production schedules so tight, that those five days are actually pretty valuable in terms of being on the front foot rather than the back foot," Horner is quoted as saying by Autosport.
"Our intention is to try to turn up at the first test in a position to knock out about 100 laps."
With stable regulations, any developments this season can be carried over to next year, meaning the status quo is likely to remain, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull the leading trio. Horner therefore expects a stronger start to the year pending engine supplier Renault's progress over the winter.
"We've got pretty much regulation stability, so the lessons we take out of RB13 will go into RB14," he added. "We have demonstrated that we have got a really competitive chassis. I think since Hungary we've been very, very strong.
"Obviously we are hopeful that on the engine side that performance and reliability improve over the winter, and they are fundamental aspects for us.
"So as I say, if we can take these learnings into next year's car then hopefully we can start on a stronger footing than the second or so we were off in Melbourne at the beginning of the year."
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