Mercedes expects close F1 title battle against “class” Red Bull

Mercedes believes Red Bull currently has the fastest car with the start of the new Formula 1 season just around the corner.

While it is still unclear how competitive Mercedes truly is, Red Bull’s improvement over the winter break was very apparent across the three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

The RB16B looked assured and well balanced on track, while the Mercedes W12 looked to be a handful, highlighted by Lewis Hamilton's two spins on the final two days of testing.

Speaking in a video released by Mercedes, strategy director James Vowles thinks Red Bull is simply ahead of Mercedes in terms of performance.

"There are a lot of unknowns," Vowles said. "No-one up and down the paddock can pinpoint exactly where they are.

"But there are a few trends that have come out. I'd say Red Bull are ahead on performance. They are the class act."

Mercedes has yet to be taken to the wire by any other team since the start of the hybrid era, but Vowles believes F1 is in store for a “close season”.

"Are we going to have a close season? I would say so," Vowles added. "Red Bull are a fierce adversary, they've got a strong package and clearly came out of the box very, very quick.

"The result of that is across the season and across different types of track layouts, I am sure you will see us move forwards and backwards relative to them, but I don't believe we are going into this particularly finding all the performance that is missing or being ahead of them."