Red Bull is confident engine supplier Renault will deliver in 2017 — particularly after the opening few races of the season.
After the first four ’flyaway’ races in March and April, the sport moves on to Barcelona and Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko is promising a big boost in Spain.
"We are seeing encouraging signs that the gap to the leaders is gradually decreasing," he told Germany’s motorsport-magazin.com.
"For the European part of the season we should be in good shape," Marko added. "From the point of view of speed, our engine should be at Ferrari’s level unless they make a big jump, although we have not yet reached the level of Mercedes.
"However, the gap is no longer so great that we can talk about having no chance," said the Austrian.
Renault powers its own works team as well as supplying Tag Heuer-branded customer engines to Red Bull. Red Bull’s second team Toro Rosso is also expected to rebrand its Renault engines in 2017.