Flavio Briatore thinks Ferrari will be unable to win the world championship in 2019.
Some are tipping the Italian team to bounce back in Bahrain, believing that after dominating winter testing, Ferrari still have a car capable of taking on Mercedes.
But former Renault boss Briatore is not so sure.
"It will be very hard for them," he told Radio Capital.
"Nothing has changed since last year. They had three months of winter to prepare the cars and Ferrari did not even close the gap to Mercedes."
So Briatore thinks Mercedes is once again the clear favourite.
"With Mercedes so strong, the only competition is between Hamilton and Bottas," said the Italian.
"To beat them, Ferrari needs to recover 8-9 tenths. I say Mercedes will continue to dominate.
"Yes Australia is atypical but if you are strong, you are strong everywhere," he added. "When the apologies begin at the first race, it will be very hard."
When asked where he thinks Ferrari is lacking, Briatore said: "Everything must work, but what we have now is a tyre championship rather than a driver championship.
"The race is so technological that you only hear the commentators speaking about tyres, tyres, tyres, rather than the gladiators fighting," he added.