After setting the pace in the first five races of the Formula One world championship, Red Bull warned their rivals Wednesday they are confident of delivering more of the same in this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.
Thanks to the form of drivers German Sebastian Vettel and Australian Mark Webber, Red Bull have secured all five pole positions and hope they can repeat their form in Saturday's critical session.
Team boss Christian Horner said: "It is a race that we are determined to do well at this year.
"It is a circuit that we weren't particularly strong at last year, but we feel we have improved the car in a lot of areas, compared to last season and we believe we can be very strong in Monaco this time."
Last year, Vettel qualified only fourth and then crashed out of the race after struggling with tyre degradation, a problem that Horner believes the team has now overcome for this year's race.
And Horner is confident that this year's RB6 car, designed by Adrian Newey, has much-improved slow-speed and slow-corner performance characteristics that may pay off in Monte Carlo.
"What I am really pleased to see is that if we had a weakness last year, it was on the slower speed corners, and that we have done a lot of work on that," added Horner.
"A combination of factors has come to play, so it is very pleasing to see the drivers' performance in the last (slow) sector in Spain for example.
"In the past, it was not our strongest area."
The team's ability to get the most out of the softer compound Bridgestone tyres has this year enabled them to be the kings of one-lap speed and qualifying -- a feature that if repeated will give them a perfect opportunity to win Sunday's race.
Britain's Jenson Button currently leads the drivers' world championship race on 70 points for his McLaren team, with Spain's Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) in second on 67 and Vettel third on 60.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
