Red Bull 'convinced' it will fight for titles in 2017

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Red Bull is "convinced" it will be fighting for the drivers' and constructors' championships in 2017, according to Helmut Marko.

When the period of Red Bull dominance came to an end after four consecutive championship doubles, the team still won three races under new regulations in 2014. However, 2015 was a major disappointment as the team failed to win a race, before recovering to take two victories this season.

With new aerodynamic and tyre regulations being introduced next year, Marko says an expected improvement from the power unit will leave the team able to fight Mercedes for the titles for the first time in four years.

"The big step forward came from the engine side - and we have been told that we can expect a similar leap forward again for 2017," Marko told the official Formula One website when asked if he was surprised Red Bull finish second in this year's constructors' championship. "And that should mean that we are very near to Mercedes power.

"On the chassis side we always have been good and this year’s chassis is one of our best - and all the data we have from the new car is very positive. With the regulation changes for 2017, nobody can use the experience or the package that they have - and history has shown that we are always good when there is a regulation change.

"So we are convinced that we will fight for both titles in 2017. And to come back to the question about whether I am surprised that we finished in P2? No. And with Max joining that gave a huge morale boost after that really painful 2015 season. We are absolutely in a winning mood again."

Despite scoring one less win than 2014, Red Bull showed greater competitiveness and scored 468 points this season, compared to 405 two years ago.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.