Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull could emerge as the quickest car come the opening race in a little over a week's time, given the Milton Keynes team has plans to bring a massive post-testing upgrade to the Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes looked to be the leading power once again in testing but almost every prediciton had Red Bull a close second, with some even putting them on a par with the reigning world champions.
Although most teams bring small updates to the first race, Red Bull has hinted at a major development package which Hamilton reckons could bring the team almost half-a-second in laptime and therefore put them out front.
"They have some sort of upgrade coming, of some magnitude, two-to-four tenths or something like that – that's what I heard," the Briton said during a Petronas sponsor presentation.
"They have generally a slightly different philosophy, they always build a car that has lots of downforce," added Hamilton. "Their maximum downforce has always been more than everyone else's.
"But that doesn't work always everywhere. Some places where you have longer straights – because they're very slow on the straights, normally, but they're fast through the corners. This advantage shifts through the year."
Hamilton believes it will be a much closer opening to the season than in previous years, which should lead to mixed results as teams outdevelop one another.
"I think this year is going to be exciting, because last year there was a big difference between teams in the beginning, and then they got closer," he said.
"But this year it starts close and then it's going to overlap, and separate, and overlap during the year, as people are developing."
