Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo says it's a fair assessment to put Ferrari as Mercedes' nearest rival at present, but is confident Red Bull can find the pace between testing and the first race in Melbourne to challenge at the front.
Ferrari and Mercedes have been at the head of the timing sheets for much of pre-season testing, with Sebastian Vettel posting a 1:19.024 on Thursday – the fastest time of testing so far – whilst Lewis Hamilton was just three-tenths off on the same tyre.
Red Bull have only broken into the high-1:19s once with Ricciardo on the ultrasoft tyre at the beginning of the week, leading the Australian to admit the Milton Keynes based team are currently a little of the leading teams.
"We certainly haven’t shown Ferrari’s pace yet," said Ricciardo. "If you were to put some markers down tonight you’d say Ferrari is Mercedes’ closest challenger – I think that’s fair. We’ve got it somewhere, but we still need to find it.
"I think it [their long-run pace] proves Ferrari are quick – they’ve been quick all test. I don’t think we were quick today. I think we will have some answers for that, but we didn’t have the pace today.
"Ferrari look strong; I think at the moment they look like they’re pretty close to Mercedes’ pace, if not on it. It’s going to make Melbourne interesting. I think we will get there. I feel it’s in the car. Tomorrow will be important that we understand a bit more."
Ricciardo confirmed that both Red Bull and engine supplier Renault would be bringing upgrades to the first race in the hope of curing their reliability issues and their pace deficit.
"I think Melbourne we’re going to see a little bit from both sides, from the power unit and the car we will have some more aero bits on it.
"Max had a bit of a troubled day with reliability yesterday, but my day was pretty clean from start to finish. It’s still a little bit hit and miss I guess, but I feel like come race day we’re going to be in a better position."
