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Red Bull boss Christian Horner insists the problems Renault faced in Jerez Formula 1 testing last week are nowhere near the severity of its 2014 dramas.

After a winter of major development work on its turbo V6 engine to try to bridge the gap to Mercedes, the French car manufacturer's performance in Spain was hampered by reliability concerns.

In particular, a small metallic shaft related to the ERS water pump forced Renault to impose running limits to ensure problems did not result in any engine failures.

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With Red Bull confident fixes are already in place to ensure a better performance at the next test at Barcelona, Horner has faith that there will be no repeat of the dramas suffered 12 months ago, when the team endured a particularly fraught pre-season.

"It was a lot more positive than last year," Horner said in an interview on the Red Bull website.

"Yes, we had issues but they were not major ones compared to the fundamental problems we had last year, with the car not running cleanly or overheating or simply setting itself on fire!

"We had a few niggling issues but this was much more of a standard pre-season test than the one we experienced 12 months ago."

Horner remains far from concerned about the Renault situation, especially because it was a relatively small component that had been the root cause of its dramas.

"The biggest changes are in the power unit. Renault have been working very hard on that but there are always going to be a few things that catch you out," he said.