Red Bull is pushing hard to prepare its 2011 car for the first day of winter testing next month.
The energy drink company’s motor sport consultant Dr Helmut Marko confirmed world champion Sebastian Vettel’s recent claim that the RB7 is on schedule to make its track debut on 1 February at Valencia.

“We are going right to the limit in the build-time of the new car,” Austrian Marko, 67, told German newspaper Bild.

“We will need every minute until the first of February in Valencia,” he added.

Marko hailed Red Bull’s car designer Adrian Newey as a “genius” and said his 2011 car is an “evolution not a revolution” of the title-winning RB6.

“What I have seen of the car so far makes me optimistic,” he said.

“Last year Sebastian lost 66 points because of technical defects and we gave almost all of them to Fernando Alonso.

“If we can get rid of the bad luck and mistakes of this year, we will defend the title,” said Marko.

Red Bull’s policy of driver equality ultimately helped Sebastian Vettel to win the 2010 drivers’ world championship.

In the days and weeks leading into the Abu Dhabi finale, numerous commentators chided the team’s reluctance to make points leader Mark Webber the de facto number 1, including by switching the finishing order in Brazil.

It would have meant Red Bull went into battle last weekend “with only one driver with a chance instead of two — and probably the wrong driver,” said Dr Helmut Marko.

And “It is always better to have two strings to one’s bow instead of one”, added the energy drink company’s motor sport consultant.

It has been suggested that the equality policy confused Ferrari when Red Bull split its two drivers’ race strategies after the early safety car in Abu Dhabi.

“Our policy of allowing the drivers to compete got us into the position where they (Ferrari) had to worry about two of our drivers and not just one,” said Adrian Newey, the designer of the RB6.

“It depended on whether they wanted to cover Mark for the championship or Sebastian for the championship,” he added. “In the end they chose to cover the wrong one.”

Niki Lauda, who was one of the strongest voices in favour of the use of team orders before Abu Dhabi, conceded on Monday that Red Bull actually made the right call — and an honourable one.

“‘Didi’ (Dietrich Mateschitz) said he would do it like the Olympic Games, but F1 is not the Olympics.

“It’s incredible how this team won in the end in the most correct way,” the triple world champion is quoted by Kleine Zeitung newspaper in Austria.

“For me, it’s unique in the 60 year history of the sport,” added Lauda.

“If there were only two, three politicians who acted like Mr Mateschitz, we would be in a better place,” he said.

Sebastian Vettel’s title triumph vindicates the decision not to impose team orders this season.

That is the view of Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motor sport consultant who accepted the trophy on the podium after his young German charge became F1′s youngest ever world champion.

Marko has been accused of favouring Vettel over Mark Webber in 2010, including by Red Bull not ordering the 23-year-old aside for his points-leading teammate in Brazil a week ago.

“If we had changed the positions in Brazil, Vettel would not be world champion,” said the Austrian in Abu Dhabi.

Indeed, Vettel’s victory at Interlagos was worth 7 points more than second place, and he beat Fernando Alonso to the championship by just 4 points.

Meanwhile, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton intimated Red Bull had enjoyed “some extra help” on Sunday in the form of works Renault drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.

Red Bull’s engine supplier and new sponsor is Renault, and in Abu Dhabi it was Kubica delaying Hamilton, and Petrov refusing to give way to Ferrari’s Alonso.

“I guess that’s what happens when you have a couple of other teammates,” said Hamilton.

Russian Petrov, however, admitted he was disappointed by Alonso’s apparent anger after the race.

“I’m here to race. I hope when he cools down he will realise that,” he said.

With Sebastian Vettel tipped for a supporting role in the build-up to the 2010 finale, the shoe is now on the other foot ahead of Sunday’s decisive race.

Although with fewer points than both his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber and leader Fernando Alonso, Vettel is starting the Abu Dhabi decider from pole.

But if he goes on to win, Alonso – starting from third – will need just a fifth place finish to deliver the drivers’ title to Ferrari.

“Now we have to rely on Mark Webber,” Red Bull’s motor sport consultant Helmut Marko is quoted by Welt newspaper.

Niki Lauda agreed: “I don’t think Sebastian is in the situation anymore where he has to let Webber past.”

Webber’s most realistic chance of winning the title for himself is to win the race, with the Australian then needing Alonso to finish third or worse.

That might require Vettel’s help, but the German – separated from Webber on the grid by three rival cars – sees the shoe now on the other foot.

“It is funny how the tables turn,” Vettel is quoted by F1′s official website.

“On Friday I was confronted with those kind of questions (about helping his teammate) and now it is Mark who has to answer them!”

Some good news for Red Bull’s title hopes comes from Germany, with Bild newspaper reporting that Mercedes has secretly agreed to help Vettel to beat Alonso.

And Norbert Haug is quoted in German by Sky television: “Two hearts beat in my chest for the championship; one for (Mercedes powered) Lewis Hamilton, but … honestly I would be very, very pleased for Sebastian Vettel.”

As for whether Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg or Michael Schumacher could help to influence the outcome, Haug answered: “Given our pace, that’s probably a bit presumptuous.”

Daniel Ricciardo’s role for the 2011 season is not yet clear.

The Australian, at the very top of Red Bull’s junior programme, has been the F1 reserve driver in 2010 and is scheduled to drive the title-winning RB6 in next week’s post-season tests.

But after finishing this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 series in second place, the 21-year-old’s full time role for 2011 has not yet been announced.

Red Bull’s secondary F1 team Toro Rosso has said it is retaining both Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari next year.

GP2 might then be seen as the logical next step for Ricciardo.

But Red Bull’s motor sport consultant Helmut Marko admitted to Auto Motor und Sport: “We still don’t know what we are going to do with him next year.”

A gutted Red Bull team on Sunday night was ruing a catastrophic Korean grand prix, where Mark Webber lost the championship lead, and Sebastian Vettel the race.

The immediate attention centred on pole sitter and race leader Vettel’s Renault engine failure, which Helmut Marko said took the team and its supplier by complete surprise.

“It did,” the Austrian said on German television RTL. “It’s our first engine failure this year.

“The mileage was at about 1600 kilometres, and normally the average (life) is 2000-2100,” added Marko.

“Something broke in the valve area, so it’s the first time. On Friday we were using an engine with much higher mileage,” said the team’s motorsport consultant.

He advised German Vettel, 23, not to give up.

“It’s not easy, but there are still 50 points to get,” said Marko. “Alonso is on his last engine. We’re not giving up.”

Renault apologised for the failure.

Mercedes is resisting efforts to create parity in engine performance within formula one, according to Helmut Marko.

He is the motor sport consultant at Red Bull Racing, who are still pushing for clearance to have its Renault engines brought up to speed amid F1′s current development freeze.

“It’s frustrating,” Dr Marko said in an interview with Austria’s laola1.at.

“Renault is losing about three tenths of a second per lap, but so far there is no green light (for parity).

“First we would need an agreement within FOTA, but so far Mercedes is resisting,” added Marko.

Hans-Joachim Stuck has slammed the front wing affair involving Red Bull at Silverstone.

German Stuck, a former grand prix driver and now motor sport boss for Volkswagen, said: “What the team management did in Britain was an absolute outrage”.

A furore was sparked after it emerged that team boss Christian Horner ordered the new front wing fixed to Mark Webber’s car be transferred to the sister RB6 driven by Sebastian Vettel.

Stuck believes the incident has all the hallmarks of the influence of Red Bull’s motor sport consultant and Austrian Dr Helmut Marko.

“Christian Horner is just a puppet, the strings for Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz are pulled solely by Marko,” he wrote in his column for the TZ newspaper.

“And whoever decided to take the new wing away from Webber qualified for his final pension,” added Stuck.

“Mateschitz must respond by putting in a new man at Red Bull,” he said, recommending the current team boss of Red Bull’s second formula one team for the job.

“(Franz) Tost is in every respect one of the best managers in formula one,” said Stuck.