Horner confident of Red Bull improvement

Red Bull's Adrian Newey believes Formula One's regulations are still too restrictive for chassis manufacturers and the performance of power units have too much influence on the competitive order.

Just one year after the new V6 turbo engine regulations were introduced, Newey is taking a step back from F1 in order to pursue other projects. Red Bull managed to finish second in the constructors' championship last year, but was a long way off rivals Mercedes and won just three races to the champion's 16.

Red Bull and Renault believe they had a 10% power deficit to rivals Mercedes last year, but Newey does not think there is enough flexibility in the chassis regulations to allow his team to catch up this year.

"Hopefully you can always improve, the problem is the limitation of the regulations and apart from the small change to the nose rules the regulations have really been stable over the winter," he said. "They are unfortunately becoming a very restrictive set of regulations, so much so that the car is designed for you.

"We've chipped away at it and understood things about our car that were quite different to 2013 in terms of the narrow front wing, lower nose and almost elimination of exhaust effect. There are a lot of new things we had to learn last year and we have tried to apply those lessons to this year's car."

But Newey said Renault will not make up the deficit to Mercedes in terms of power, creating a nearly impossible task for Red Bull.

"Renault have now accepted or stated that the power deficit [last year] was around 10%, which is kind of our estimation from our analysis and they've obviously come to the same opinion. It's a big number and really for Renault it's not something that's easy for them to overcome in a short period of time. I think they've done a very good job of developing the engine over the winter, but you don't overcome a 10% deficit in a few months and that's the position we are in.

"We're better than last year but still considerably down on where Mercedes was last year, and that's not taking into account the findings they've had over the winter. That's the nature of the engine business, it's a much longer lead time and a slower development curve than chassis manufacturing can achieve because the parts take so much longer to manufacture. I think this year it's going to be quite difficult and I think that's where it has got a little bit out of kilter.

"In my opinion, Formula One should be a blend of the performance of the driver, the chassis and the engine, and I think the current regulations have swung too much in favour of the engine and a very restrictive set of regulations on the chassis. If an engine manufacturer derives a benefit it's difficult for a chassis manufacturer to make enough of a difference to overturn it. That's not to say that there isn't a difference between chassis, of course there is, but it's more difficult to find that last little bit."