Christian Horner fears that Red Bull could end up in a lonely third place for the rest of the 2017 season. However, he insists that the team is determined to make any progress it can over the next few races.
The team was a long way off the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes in Spain. Daniel Ricciardo finished the race over 75 seconds off the pace of the race winner.
"We are a bit in no-man’s land," Horner told the Formula 1 website this week. "We are trying to start playing with the big boys.
"If we are going to manage that, probably one of our drivers could dictate what happens in the drivers’ championship," he added. "If you have five or six drivers fighting for a win on a Grand Prix weekend, that becomes a somewhat different dynamic."
Horner admitted that much depends on future upgrades to the team's TAG Heuer-badged engine. The first upgrade package was introduced in Spain, but Horner said that it was still early days.
"It’s part of an ongoing process throughout the season," he said. "But yes, Barcelona was a reasonably big package.
"The early indications are reasonably positive - but as with all new things they have to bed in before you really can make a final verdict.
"In Barcelona we were in the tuning process by changing set-ups to see what works best," he added. "And it worked well enough for a podium finish for Daniel."
"The feeling is clearly that there is more potential to come," he insisted. "We see it opens up more avenues that we can exploit in the races to come."
Horner laughed off recent comments by Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko to the effect that the team's 2017 campaign was already over.
"That's probably his Austrian way of seeing things, the glass always seems to be half empty," said Horner. "Helmut has a very immediate reaction to things - good or bad.
"Perhaps I am a bit more hopeful. I truly believe that the second half will turn the table in our favour.
"Exactly one year ago we had the same amount of points when we arrived in Barcelona," he pointed out. "And we managed to catch and beat Ferrari. Nobody would have expected that at the very beginning of 2016.
"Things can change quickly."
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GALLERY: All the action from Barcelona on Sunday
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