Earlier today, while speaking to the media, Red Bull motorsport advisor, Dr Helmut Marko gave his input on how the pecking order will be. According to him, Ferrari are the top dogs, closely followed by his own team, Red Bull.

In the meantime, he aimed a cheeky dig at McLaren. He believes that the Woking outfit will be stuck battling Williams to ‘avoid the wooden spoon’, as he puts it.

All the Formula 1 teams have officially wrapped up pre-season testing on Friday. Scuderia Ferrari, unsurprisingly, ruled the roost meanwhile, Williams languished in 20th place.

But while many experts believe that P1 and P20 are fairly accurate for the coming season, it is the order in between that will be hard to judge.

According to the final week’s timesheet, Mercedes were the second fastest team behind the scarlet stallions. Red Bull on the other hand, ended up in the thick of the midfield. Mainly behind both Toro Rosso and McLaren drivers as well as a Renault and a Haas.

However, Marko has remained positive and believes that Red Bull are the second best team heading to Melbourne.

“Ferrari is ahead, then we come in front of Mercedes,” the Red Bull advisor said, speaking to Speed Week.

“And then there is the big midfield, where it will be very tight. McLaren and Williams are at the back.”

Marko’s faith in the Red Bull-Honda package is so high that he set some lofty targets. The Austrian “expects at least five victories” this season from his boys, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

Probed further on his confidence, he explained, “it was the best test for us since the introduction of the hybrid formula”.

He added: “We did an incredible mileage despite Pierre Gasly’s crashes, we had absolute reliability thanks to Honda.”

He was also quick to pick out the driver who will come out on top to become World Champion, “Max Verstappen.”