Christian Horner says Red Bull is "snapping at the ankles" of Ferrari after recording its first podium of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo led in the early stages of the race and recovered from an puncture to finish fourth, behind teammate Daniil Kvyat, who scored his second career podium. The pair split Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari once again squandered an opportunity to take the fight to Mercedes out in front.

While Kvyat has stated Red Bull can be a threat to Mercedes when upgrades come later in the year, boss Horner thinks at the present moment the team is right on the heels of Ferrari.

"Mercedes -- make no mistake -- they're still a step ahead," Horner said. "But we're snapping at the ankles of Ferrari. Both our cars beat one of them today. Sebastian wasn't so far up the road and I think a clean race from Ricciardo would've been seriously competitive. So it's been a really positive weekend for the whole team.

"To come away from [China] only giving one point away to Ferrari. I didn't expect that coming into the weekend. So a lot of positives. And we know hopefully with what's in the pipeline, it should put us that bit closer."

Horner says the lap times during the Chinese Grand Prix proved the fact Red Bull has moved closer to Ferrari in the early stages of the season.

"Let's see it first. Pieces of paper are all very easy to look at but it's the stopwatch that doesn't lie. The guys both in Viry and in Milton Keynes are doing a great job and you can genuinely see the progress that's being made."

Asked if Renault still planned to bring an upgrade to Canada, Horner replied: "Yes. Hopefully then we can really start to cause a bit of mischief ahead of us."