>JEREZ, Spain, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Red Bull sounded confident that they had conquered their reliability problems after presenting the team's new RB4 car at a damp Jerez circuit on Wednesday.
The Renault-powered team, fifth overall last season after scoring points in just six of the 17 races, set their sights on challenging for regular podium places and putting pressure on the Formula One leaders.
"Of course you want a fast car but you need something that's reliable," Australian driver Mark Webber told reporters after British team mate David Coulthard had completed the first lap in the new car.
"You look at all the effort it takes to get to grands prix, the whole shooting match, and if you break down on lap one or two laps from the end it's the same result," said Webber, who suffered a spate of soul-destroying retirements in 2007.
"They (Red Bull) should this year be a damn sight better than last year because it wouldn't be too hard to beat what we had last year."
Team boss Christian Horner saw significant progress, despite new rules stipulating that gearboxes must last for four races in a row, with Red Bull in their second year with Renault after switching from Ferrari engines.
"I think a large amount of the problems we had last year within the transmission area were inherent from a late engine change at the end of 2006," he said.
"There were some issues within the fundamental design of the layout...we have understood those issues very clearly and addressed them within the new transmission.
"We've been running on the dyno (test bench) for the last couple of months with the new transmission and we are pretty confident that we've addressed the problems that blighted us in 2007," added the Briton.
ONLY PODIUM
Webber took the team's only podium finish of 2007, with third place at the Nuerburgring, although the Australian was running second in Japan before a collision with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
"I hope that our starting point is at a stronger level," said the Australian, looking forward to the season which kicks off in Melbourne on March 16.
"As BMW showed (last year), that can carry you through very early on to the first 70 percent of the championship and then you just scrabble your way home.
"You've got McLaren with two cars out already, bombing around and doing big mileage, so they are going to be starting out very strong. And Ferrari I can't imagine being too far away," he added.
"So that's the level that you are chasing and comparing yourself to early on. To take a big chunk out of that is optimistic. That's what I'm hoping for, but it's bloody difficult."
"It's easy for teams to produce a lemon...I hope there are a few more of those around and that we've got ours right."
Technical head Adrian Newey, who has designed title-winning cars for Williams and McLaren in the past, said the RB4 was evolutionary even if few parts were carried over.
"We're better organised than we were this time last year, we've had a year to mature and to learn how to operate a car that is somewhat more complex than Milton Keynes (the Red Bull factory) had been used to previously," he said.
