Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has denied that his team are the favourites to take victory in Australia, instead suggesting that Ferrari are leading the way.
“I think Ferrari look very strong, I think people are under-estimating where Ferrari are,” he told Reuters. “We hope that we are somewhere near competitive.”
On the subject of other leading teams, he highlighted both Mercedes and McLaren as potential leaders, though he wasn’t sure of how to read the latters test pace.
“There’s a few teams that have shown good form in testing, Mercedes have recently taken a step. It’s difficult to say where McLaren are; one thing’s for sure, they will at some point emerge near the front of the field.
“I think it’s doubtful that you will see one team dominate and run away with the first five races for example,” he said, alluding to Brawn GP’s dominance during 2009.
On the matter of the pressure upon the current world champion’s shoulders, Sebastian Vettel, Horner brushed the comments aside. He believes the Red Bull driver will have added confidence having got his first title under his belt.
“He will go into the next year with his confidence certainly high and in many respects it’s a degree of expectation already dealt with.
“If he hadn’t have won there would be that ‘Oh, Vettel’s got to do it this year; now or never’ kind of thing.”
