Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is setting the ambitious target of outscoring Ferrari over the final nine races of the 2017 season, as the former four-time world champions continue to make progress.

It has been a difficult year for the Austrian energy drinks giant as rather than benefitting from the new aero design rules introduced as many expected, Red Bull actually dropped back from Mercedes, after closing in towards the end of 2016, and fell behind a rejuvenated Ferrari becoming stuck in the void between their rivals and the midfield.

The early season problems were put down to correlation issues in the wind tunnel with designer Adrian Newey taking a different route of trying to optimise the slipperiness of the RB13 in an effort to minimise the power deficit between supplier Renault and the top two.

However, since the European season began back in May, significant progress has been made even if it is yet to see Red Bull become a major threat for wins, though Daniel Ricciardo did score five consecutive top three finishes from Spain to Austria.

“We are sitting here with six podiums and a Grand Prix victory but we are further away than where we want to be from Mercedes and Ferrari,” Horner admitted.

“But if we look at the four races [between Montreal and Silverstone] Ferrari have only outscored us by two points and we haven’t had 100 percent reliability in those races, so we have made good ground.”

Maintaining that development is now the main goal for Red Bull and Horner as they look to build momentum going into the winter and 2018 with little change in the regulations.

“From a championship point of view, I think the gap between us and Mercedes and Ferrari is too big to haul back,” the Briton acknowledged, “but I think I would like to at least outscore Ferrari in the second half of the year.

“If we can get into a situation to challenge for podiums and the higher places on the podium at a couple of races between now and the end of the year that is a realistic and I think an aggressive target for us."

To beat Ferrari, Red Bull would likely have to start competing for victories more regularly as former driver Sebastian Vettel pushes to claim the Scuderia's first Drivers' world title in a decade.

As his boss during the highly successful period from 2010-2013, Horner sent a warning to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton that the 30-year-old German will force them to be at their absolute best if they want to beat him.