Horner: Red Bull title bid ‘not realistic’

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is pessimistic about the team's title chances this season in the face of Mercedes' "quite frightening" power unit.

Red Bull brought forward the development date of the RB14 to try and be a threat from the first race onward but, after the first day of testing in Barcelona, Horner does not feel a big step has been made.

"Mercedes are the benchmark," Horner told Sky Sports.

"They have been talking about reaching 1000 HP over the winter and that is quite frightening if they are achieving those kind of numbers.

"We expect to have a similar amount of power to where we finished in Abu Dhabi, so we have to do a great job on the chassis.

"Going for championships is not realistic. Our goal is to close the gap and to be as disruptive as we can. Get amongst it and get as many grand prix wins as possible."