Red Bull had a tough time during testing in Bahrain, with problems keeping Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen in the garage on Thursday and Friday. Because of this, they completed the fewest laps of any team, 154 less than the leaders, which is almost three full races at the Bahrain circuit.

Assessing Red Bull’s position after testing, Helmut Marko acknowledged the competitiveness of the top teams but pointed out that McLaren looks to have the advantage heading into the season.

Speaking to Sport.de, he said: “I think it will be a three- or four-man fight between McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. But, looking at the results, McLaren is already slightly ahead, something that was the case in both the short and long runs.”

Despite some struggles, Marko believes Red Bull has made progress with the RB21 compared to last year’s RB20. However, he admitted that at this stage McLaren appears to be the team to beat.

“For now, McLaren is clearly the favourite,” he said.

When asked how big the gap is, he explained: “Only on Wednesday were we as fast as McLaren. On Friday, the last day, I think in the long runs we conceded about two to three-tenths of a second per lap.”

One of the biggest concerns for Red Bull was tyre wear. According to Marko, McLaren was much better in this area.

“The tyre wear was significantly better at McLaren than our data indicated about our wear,” he noted. Since tyre management plays a big role in race strategy, this could be a major factor once the season begins.

Red Bull tested a new front wing and a new floor, with Verstappen running the floor upgrade on Friday. Some things worked well, while others still need improvement. Marko remains optimistic, though.

“It would have been nice if all the adjustments and innovations had worked well right away,” he said.

“But at least the car is more predictable. The car responds correctly to technical input. It is not as random as last year. Some new parts worked, some parts did not. But that means there is still room for developments and improvements with what we have at our disposal at the moment.”

Even though McLaren seems to have the advantage for now, Marko doesn’t think Red Bull should be too worried. However, he did point out that they need to work on closing a gap of up to three-tenths per lap and improving tyre wear.