Red Bull team principal Christian Horner fears that Mercedes will enjoy a far larger advantage in Bahrain than has currently been seen this year.
Whilst Mercedes dominated both Australia and Malaysia, the nature of the Bahrain circuit, which features four long straights, is expected to benefit the power advantage the Brackley team has, leading Horner to believe their rival will be further ahead.
“I think their advantage in Bahrain will possibly be larger than it was in Malaysia, because that is quite a power dominated circuit,” he said.
“Our middle sector in Malaysia was closer than the third sector, but the first sector was where they killed us all weekend – and it is effectively two straights.
“On average there was 0.5 second [advantage] on those two straights [for Mercedes].”
The Briton also believes the lack of rain in Bahrain could further hurt their chances.
“It doesn’t tend to rain in Bahrain, so we are going to try to make as much progress as we can in the week,” he added.
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