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Mercedes see Red Bull as main competition in 2018

12:06, 08 Mar 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Mercedes Techinical Director James Allison identified Red Bull as Mercedes' main competition in 2018 after Daniel Ricciardo set the all time lap record at the Circuit de Catalunya on Wednesday.

Ricciardo's time was set on the new hypersoft tire and his 1:18.047s was 0.3 faster than Lewis Hamilton managed on the ultrasoft compound. Allison reckons that Red Bull will be huge competition to the Silver Arrows this year and their new 2018 car will put them right in the fight for the championship.

"I think there's three quick teams and there's no doubt that we're going to be fighting with this year," Allison told Sky Sports News. "There's clearly no doubt about that.

"As winter testing goes on you have a better and better idea of where things are stack up, now we have some blurriness, so it's not possible to say if we've got our nose in front of them or they've got their nose in front of us, but you can say it's close. "

Unquestionably the third team in this fight is Ferrari as the gap between the top teams and the midfield has seemingly increased over the winter break, but the inclusion of Red Bull into a possible championship fight is a reality that Allison is expecting, adding he feels there is performance that Red Bull can extract from their car.

"I do not know what their engine plans are, but I do not know what they've been doing here, I'd say they've got some bodywork to bolt on before Melbourne," he said.

"But no one really sandbags, there's no point in sandbagging, you're here to test.

"And you're only going to a valid test if you find out what your car can do.

"The thing you can do is change the absolute pace to have more or less fuel in the car, to have the engine turned up."

After an impressive 165 laps on day two , Ricciardo is optimistic for the season but knows that Ferrari is still a threat to the team.

"Now it looks like we're close, I still do not know where Ferrari is, I'm quite confident that Mercedes is just in front of us, but Ferrari I'm not sure. be a lot closer than last year."