Red Bull Racing says it remains wary of the form of rivals McLaren and Ferrari, despite having delivered its second victory of the season in Malaysia.
Sebastian Vettel has taken pole position and the win at the first two races of the year, with his team having emerged as the outfit to beat. But despite that success, and the fact that neither McLaren nor Ferrari have yet been able to launch a serious challenge on victory, Red Bull Racing thinks it needs to fear what its main rivals can do.
"McLaren and Ferrari are our chief concern," said team principal Christian Horner. "I think that you can see the performance can ebb and flow. Ferrari looked to be having a very strong race in Malaysia so we need to focus on optimizing our own performance. We have managed to win the two opening grands prix of the season, which is a tremendous start, and we will look to try and build on this form as we head to China next week."
Vettel was able to win in Malaysia despite not having a fully working KERS system for the whole race. That fact suggests there is even more speed to come from the RB7, although Horner suggested the key to success at Sepang was a decision taken earlier in the weekend to focus on race runs.
"I think the tires become the biggest performance differentiator," he said. "We adopted a slightly different approach after Melbourne and put a lot of focus into the race, and I think it paid off. It possibly may have cost us a bit of time in qualifying but I think the approach for the race was absolutely right."