Marko adamant Red Bull 'not half a second behind'

Helmut Marko has reiterated his belief that Red Bull will once again be among F1's front-runners this season, insisting that the team's performance in Barcelona did not reflect its true potential.

Red Bull concluded F1's first pre-season test with the third fastest time, courtesy of Sergio Perez. But the Mexican's best flyer was 0.418s adrift from pace setter Lewis Hamilton who, along with teammate George Russell, led the charge for Mercedes in Spain.

But Marko argues that there is little value in trying to extract anything from the sheer numbers that teams put on the board in Spain.

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"Nobody knows who drove with how much weight," Marko told Austria's OE24. "It seems that besides us and Mercedes, Ferrari could be up front again.

"We're not half a second behind," he added.

"We drove on hard tyres while Mercedes was on two levels of softer tyres. But I'm looking forward to the next test.

"The cars are heavy, but extremely fast. It's exciting to see how the new regulations will be interpreted. Mercedes has a completely different concept than we do."

Marko readily admitted that Red Bull's new-spec RB18 needed to shed some weight, and the team is working on making its new machine mean and lean.

"We're still a long way from the weight limit, but there are new parts coming as well," he said.

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