Red Bull deny RB10 will be ditched as Sebastian Vettel fends off fresh Ferrari talk

For reigning World Champions Red Bull, F1 in 2014 is already proving to be a world apart from the established norm.

"I don't know where all this speculation comes from," sighed team boss Christian Horner. "We will have an updated car as we have every year and that will come with developments at each grand prix - not just for the European season, but each grand prix throughout the year. There is no silver bullet in this game and it is a matter of engineering solutions to engineering problems." Yet without that silver bullet it is impossible to envisage the World Champions being in a competitive state later this month in Australia, with their problems escalating rather than diminishing as pre-season continued. Most alarmingly of all, the RB10's most damaging flaws - essentially, a tendency to overheat after the briefest of on-track excursions - appear to be of Red Bull's own making and aggressive design rather than the responsibility of Renault given that the Caterham team, who the French manufacturer also supplies, were able to complete over 100 laps on the final day in Bahrain. Vettel, by contrast, managed just 155 over the entire winter. Once the initial shock at their likely fall from grace has settled, the story of the season is set to centre on the intriguing question of how long it will take the World Champions and their genius designer Adrian Newey to fathom a solution to their problems. Playing catch-up will be new territory for a team used to bolting out of the blocks and disappearing in the distance. Despite the post-Jerez insistence that the RB10's shortcomings were "nothing major", the Bahrain meets provided little solace. Vettel's two breakdowns without setting a single timed lap on the penultimate day marked a shocking new low. There's little dispute amongst trackside observers that the RB10 could be a quick car but there's considerable doubt whether Red Bull will be able to make it reliable without sacrificing a significant chunk of that potential. With little over a week before the sport descends on Melbourne, the start of the season can't come quickly enough. For Red Bull, however, it can't come slowly enough.