Sebastian Vettel thinks it is a matter of "when" and not "if" Red Bull joins the battle for race wins this season.
After four rounds, Vettel leads the drivers' championship by 13 points after taking two wins and two second place finishes for Ferrari. Mercedes has secured the other two victories, with Lewis Hamilton winning in China and Valtteri Bottas scoring his maiden victory in Russia on Sunday.
Typically Red Bull has been over a second off the pace in qualifying and, with the exception of China, has had to settle for being the best of the rest in races. The battle between the Ferrari and Mercedes could go either way as Formula One returns to its European heartland over the next two races, but Vettel says his former team Red Bull could also join the battle with a planned update for the Spanish Grand Prix.
"It will be a surprise, I think it will be a very close race between Mercedes and us, I hope, and I also hope that Red Bull find some pace," he said. "There's a lot of rumours around. They are a strong team, they know how to build a quick car so I expect it's a question of when rather than if [they close the gap]. But the sooner, the more exciting it will be.
"For us [at Ferrari], I'm confident that we have the right people, the right tools on board and we will make progress. It obviously depends on what others are doing."
After a season without a victory in 2016, Ferrari made a dramatic turnaround over the winter and emerged in pre-season testing as a clear threat to Mercedes. Vettel is happy with the progress his team has made, but says it must not rest on its laurels.
"We had a good run up in Barcelona at the tests, so looking forwards to [the race at] Barcelona, the car feels good. I think we've improved it from early March to now, I think we've had a very good start. It would be wrong to sit here and say that's what we expected -- but we're here to win, we're here to do our best. If we look back I think we have more or less extracted the maximum.
"So very happy with where we are as a team -- but we can still learn and we can still improve and I think that's the way we go forward. Nothing is for granted, Barcelona is just another race and we have a lot of races to go this year. But before that we have two weeks' time to look at what we have done so far and improve.
"In Russia I think the speed in general was there, the balance dropped away from me a little bit in the first stint. I struggled with the fronts and couldn't attack as much as I was hoping for and as much as I was probably able to in qualifying. So things that we could have done better but the race is done today so yeah, I'm generally looking forwards: we have a strong car, a strong team, the spirit is good, so lots of positives."
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