Red Bull Racing have taken the wraps off their new 2014 challenger the Red Bull RB10 at a racetrack and then tested the machine. They’re obviously showing the rest of the paddock that they’re serious about achieving a fifth consecutive constructors world championship with the RB10.

Unveiling a new car in the pit lane and then taking it out on track is like a football club announcing a new signing on the side-lines and then substituting him into the match. Although football clubs can’t do that (wouldn’t Real Madrid or Manchester City love to do something like that?) F1 teams can take the wraps off their car and then put it through its paces. The team choose the first pre-season test at Jerez to unveil the machine, and although the first morning was spent in the garage with what Adrian Newey called “a silly problem overnight”, the team were able to put the car through its paces.

Several rival designers have chosen to interpret the new low nose ruling the same way so a lot of the new cars running in the test have a narrow protruding section at the front. Red Bull haven’t done this which is typical of Newey who always seems to go his own way with spectacular results.

Red Bull weren’t the only team to unveil their new car at the Jerez test as Mercedes also used the Spanish test to showcase their new Mercedes W05. Lewis Hamilton’s first impressions of the new car must be mixed because he completed 18 laps of the Spanish circuit but his test was abruptly stopped by a suspected front-wing failure.

Lotus are the only team not using the Jerez test to evaluate their new car. They’ll be at the second F1 winter test which takes place in Bahrain next month.