Daniel Ricciardo feels Mercedes and Ferrari are ‘very close’ despite lap times not being completely representative.
Red Bull has not topped the timesheets over the three days of running so far with its rivals continuing to ramp up the pace.
Ricciardo does admit Red Bull has yet to unleash the RB13 after not yet doing any performance based runs.
As quoted by Motorsport.com Ricciardo said: “I think for now we haven’t really got too involved in the performance runs.
“We’re trying to get some laps, some consistent laps, for reliability as well, to make sure nothing’s getting hot or there’s no problems.
“The laptimes, for now it’s still not too representative but I think we can expect Mercedes and Ferrari to be at the front. But I think we can be very close as well.”
Plenty of speculation surrounding the RB13 is whether Renault has been able to improve their power unit over the winter period.
Since the hybrid era began in 2014 Renault has been behind Mercedes and Ferrari with regards to power and reliability.
However, Ricciardo feels that may have changed as still feels there is more pace in the Renault power unit.
“For now, this first test, we’re pretty happy,” Ricciardo added
“We know there’s a bit more to come, but hopefully next week we can start to push it a bit more and I think by the end of next week everyone will be seeing what they’ve got.
“I’m confident we can be again a bit closer than we were last year, and we’ll see from there. Today’s been globally positive.”
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