Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko says the team will win more races in its first year with Honda than it did with Renault last season.

Marko also said he believes the team’s new car for the 2019 F1 season is already quicker than reigning champions Mercedes’ W10.

“We will win at least five races,” said Marko an interview with motorsport-magazin.com. Red Bull won four races last year in Shanghai, Monaco, the Red Bull Ring and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Marko added the team’s RB15 must be competitive across a broader range of circuits. The team has tended to be strongest at high-downforce venues in recent seasons.

Although Ferrari ended testing just three-thousandths of a second ahead of Mercedes, Marko believes the real gap between the two teams is bigger – and that they are split by Red Bull.

“Ferrari is favourite,” said Marko. “They were very fast, as though they had an additional week’s testing behind them.”

Marko said Pierre Gasly’s two crashes during the tests had set Red Bull back and limited their ability to test new parts ahead of next week’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen only managed 29 laps on the final day of testing due to the knock-on effects of Gasly’s heavy crash the day before.

Don't miss anything new from RaceFans

Follow RaceFans on social media:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season