Red Bull will challenge for race wins this season according to advisor Helmut Marko, who reckons the team will be on a par with Ferrari once they've received Renault's upgraded power unit.
Red Bull sit 19 points adrift of Ferrari in the Constructors' standings, and like the Italian team, they've encountered their fare share of bad luck so far with punctures and crashes keeping them from showing their full potential.
However in China the team managed to do just that, with Daniil Kvyat finishing third and Daniel Ricciardo fourth despite a first lap puncture dropping him down the order.
"China was very special – a bit out of the norm," Marko told the official Formula 1 website.
"Daniel [Ricciardo] had the speed, yes, and in the end we were unlucky because without his puncture he could have finished second. But don’t forget Hamilton had his issues and the two Ferraris collided at the start. That will not happen at every race unfortunately."
The Red Bull pair didn't do so well in Russia, with Daniil Kvyat twice hitting Sebastian Vettel, carnage Ricciardo also got caught up in.
"Looking at the Russian weekend: the engine power is super important there – we saw in qualifying that we had dropped back a bit again. We were again in the region of the Williams," added Marko.
However the team are excited about what could happen later this season when Renault delivers what is expected to be a huge upgrade to its power unit.
"We are pretty optimistic," said the Austrian. "If the figures are right it should put us back in a situation where we can win races again on circuits like Budapest and Singapore – tracks that don’t have long straights.
[Already Red Bull have made] a big step. In fact, we hope to be a threat to Ferrari the rest of the season…"
