Red Bull: Ferrari now the quickest in F1

Red Bull team principal has labelled Ferrari as the pace-setters in Formula 1, surpassing Mercedes who have dominated the turbo hybrid era since its introduction in 2014.

Over the past few seasons, it has looked as though Ferrari has edged ever closer to Mercedes but ultimately failing to achieve a first championship title since 2008.

While Mercedes has enjoyed a performance advantage until recently, Horner believes it is the Italian team that is the quickest in the sport after the 2019 upgrades Ferrari has brought has provided a straight line speed advantage.

"They’ve done a great job. They’re ballistically fast on the straights and they’re obviously carrying a lot of wing as well so it’s down to us to try and catch them," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"But they are certainly the gold standard at the moment. It’s impressive even compared to a Mercedes."

Ferrari was said to have been comfortably fastest in pre-season testing before a bizarre lack of pace at the season-opening race in Melbourne and reliability concerns in Bahrain put Mercedes in front ahead of the third race of 2019.

Free practice spoils were shared between both teams with Sebastian Vettel topping FP1 before Valtteri Bottas ended Friday fastest of all in FP2.