Top designer Adrian Newey has played down suggestions that his first Red Bull car could be Formula One's surprise package this year.

"Unfortunately I think expectations do seem to be quite high, which is a shame," said Newey, whose cars won a string of titles for Williams and McLaren, at the Autosport International show in Birmingham on Sunday.

"I would much rather go in, in a fairly low-key way, and if we do better than expected that's great," added the Red Bull technical director.

"We are still a young team and that means that some of our infrastructure and resources aren't yet as good as some of the more established teams."

Newey joined Red Bull from McLaren last year and the Renault-powered RB3, due to be unveiled in Barcelona on January 26, is an all-new car to last year's disappointing machine.

"We are doing a lot of catch-up, and certainly 2006 for Red Bull was quite a weak year," said Newey.

"The car had various problems and from mid-season we decided that, since we were clearly not going to be truly competitive in 2006, we would concentrate our efforts on the 2007 car. So that meant a further tail off towards the end of the year but we are keen to turn it around for this year." Red Bull finished last season seventh overall in the constructors' championship.

They have Briton David Coulthard, who finished third in Monaco last year, and Australian Mark Webber joining from Williams as their drivers this year. The season starts in Melbourne on March 18.