Red Bull make 'unfortunate' admission after major F1 'surprise'

Laurent Mekies has maintained that "unfortunately", Red Bull is "not the benchmark" heading into the F1 season.

In extension, the Frenchman also claimed the six-time constructors' champion has "very high confidence" that it is currently off the leading pace of Mercedes, Ferrari — and McLaren.

Early into pre-season testing, the paddock at the Bahrain International Circuit resorted to finger-pointing between the top teams – and in particular Mercedes and Red Bull — as they tried to convince the outside world that the other was, in fact, the team to beat.

That came in the wake of the Milton Keynes-based squad's unexpectedly strong start to the first test in Sakhir, where its fledgling power unit showcased strong reliability and performance.

As the six days of running progressed, the competitive picture, although still ultimately concealed, suggested Mercedes and Ferrari to be slightly clear of Red Bull and McLaren.

And despite the gamesmanship that descended, Mekies moved to downplay expectations as best he could.

He told media, including RacingNews365: "There is a good game in the pit lane to try to move the attention onto the competition, and our approach is that we try to keep the noise low, to concentrate on ourselves.

"We have a huge amount of work to do. We are, unfortunately, not the benchmark. We have a very high confidence that we are probably trailing the group of the top guys right now."

However, he did concede that Red Bull's new partnership with Ford had "surprised" rivals straight out of the gate.

"But nonetheless, it's fair to say that, yes, probably a fair part of the pit lane was surprised by the fact that we could run with that level of consistency with a completely new project.

"And again, it's something that our people back in Milton Keynes should be proud of.

"The competitiveness fight ahead is going to be massive, and it will take us a lot of time to reach the level we want to reach."