Red Bull chief engineer Adrian Newey insists that there is still room for improvement despite his team's dominance during 2011.
The Newey-designed RB7 was driven to 18 pole positions and 12 race wins as Red Bull secured both the drivers' and constructors' championships for a second straight year.
However, Newey believes that there were still some weaknesses in the design and says they will be addressed during the winter development race.
"All we can do is try and look at our own weaknesses from this year, and try and improve on them," Newey told Autosport.
"We still had some areas that could be improved upon, but as always it is going to be the development race through the winter.
"We have got some regulation changes - primarily the restriction of exhaust exit position and mapping - which means that the exhaust effect is almost zero now.
"So, everybody will be working to try and recover that lost downforce, and whoever comes up with the best solutions will probably be the winners next year."
Red Bull were on top throughout pre-season testing in 2011 and duly delivered on that promising pace at the first race of the year, but Newey says the teams are never sure of the true picture until the start of the season.
He added: "All through pre-season testing you are never really quite sure, and it certainly seemed that Ferrari were going to be our main rivals, and McLaren were struggling with their exhaust system.
"But they did a painfully good and quick job of copying ours between the last test and the first race, so their performance in Melbourne was unexpected. And really after that it was really the usual development race."