Horner knows Mercedes is the team to beat

Christian Horner

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes that Mercedes has an advantage over its Formula 1 rivals, but says Red Bull is close behind. We think he is hallucinating.

Mercedes has been sandbagging in all three pre-season tests and still topped the charts with relative ease.

Horner thinks Red Bull has closed the deficit, but he really is only guessing.

"We have an approximation, but it's not accurate because you don't know what other teams are up to," he said of where Red Bull's rivals rank. "Mercedes is clearly a step ahead at the moment, and we're quite close behind them so it's going to be interesting.

"Melbourne is a unique circuit so you can't read too much into it, you look at McLaren last season, they were second and third and then they didn't get that result again during the rest of the year. It's a little bit of a one-off, it won't be until after Malaysia and China that we'll get a bit more of an understanding."

Horner is also confident that Ricciardo can continue to lead Red Bull's charge after impressing in 2014.

"The objective really is to take off where he left off," he added. "He finished the season in great shape last year, he's been driving very well in pre-season, obviously it is a new season, new cars, a few differences in personnel but definitely, he can carry on where he left off from last year."