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Formula 1 design genius Adrian Newey has still had a big role in the creation of Red Bull's 2015 challenger, despite stepping back from his full-time technical role last year.

Newey's frustration at ever-tighter regulations prompted him to move away from focusing entirely on F1, and he now spends some of his time working on other Red Bull projects.

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But despite the change of emphasis, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed that the team's RB11 has still been heavily influenced by Newey - who will be attending the first pre-season test at Jerez in Spain this weekend.

"Adrian has had a bit less input, but he has still been very much the architect of this car," said Horner, during a Red Bull media event in Milton Keynes.

"He will be at this test [at Jerez]. He is splitting his time now around 50/50, but 50 per cent of Adrian's time is quite significant.

"He has certainly been paying attention to what has been happening on the engine as well."

MERCEDES TARGET

Red Bull's 2014 campaign was hampered by problems with its Renault engines - which prompted the French car manufacturer to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of its approach to F1.

Horner said that the power unit situation should be better this year, and the ability to introduce in-season developments was an extra boost to Red Bull's hopes of challenging Mercedes.

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"You can upgrade during the year with the different power units, and for sure Renault are taking an aggressive development approach to this year," he said. "So we need to decide when to use those tokens in the four engines you have available.

"Mercedes is the benchmark. They go in as the reigning champions, as the favourites obviously for this year, and they had a significant advantage at the end of last year.

"I think hopefully we will have made significant inroads into that advantage, but the question is: what have they done over the winter? What have the other teams done?

"We know where we are, but until you get to Melbourne or the first three/four races, you won't see a pattern of what the running order is."