With a pair of fourth place finishes in the first two races of 2016, Daniel Ricciardo currently sits fifth in the world championship standings behind the dynamic Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
But the ever-smiling Aussie believes he may be hard pressed to maintain that order in China, on a track which isn't the most favorable play ground for his RB12 chassis.
"The nature of this track really doesn't suit us as much as Bahrain," Ricciardo explained.
"Because it's front-end limited, the likes of Williams and Toro Rosso will benefit from that. Where we've had a little bit of an advantage is with rear wear, like in Bahrain.
"And here, with less rear wear, they will be able to get away with running a bit more aggressive and being a bit quicker.
"So I'm expecting it'll be harder to crack the top 5 here, but if we do it'll be another good achievement for us."
Because of Shanghai's specific high-speed nature and the relative slackness of Red Bull's power unit, Ricciardo is expecting more compromise for Sunday's race with regard to chassis set-up.
"The middle sector and fast flowing corners should be good for our car, but then again you have the long straight.
"We still have to run a little less downforce than optimum if we want to be in a good race shape. On the simulations, a high-downforce package is quicker here over one lap, but that makes us even more vulnerable for the race.
" It's one that we always have to work out but we tend to run less than we want to because we need every little kph that we can get."
Chris Medland's 2016 Chinese Grand Prix preview
PROFILE: Paddy Lowe, the pioneer
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