Red Bull remain optimistic of fighting with Mercedes from the start after shaking down their 2020 car this week.
Friday saw the final expected title contender be revealed as Mercedes took their new W11 to Silverstone just two days after the Milton Keynes-based squad did the same with the RB16.
And it was after the trouble-free launch, with a full 100km of permitted running completed, that the Red Bull boss expressed his confidence.
“We had a great debut season with Honda [in 2019], and the partnership has only got stronger and stronger,” Christian Horner said in a team video.
“It’s been a really positive winter; the effort that’s gone in has been truly impressive, and I think further steps have been made on the power unit front and the chassis side and the integration of the power unit fully into the car now is really a work of art.
“I think the most exciting thing about the 2020 season is that it feels like the grid has really been concertinaing and should be getting closer and closer.
“It’s going to be a long, hard, tough season but hopefully we can put a really strong challenge together.”
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Red Bull have also been putting more emphasis on ensuring they can head to the first race in Melbourne better-placed to take on their top-three rivals, something Max Verstappen sees as essential to any title aspirations.
“The target for the whole team is to fight for the championship and do better than last year, and be there from the first race onwards because that’s really where you have to start performing,” the Dutchman told Formula1.com.
“We’re on a good way, the team is very motivated, worked very hard over the winter as well, so I just can’t wait to get started.
“I’m just looking forward [to the season] and hope that we can be competitive from the start – and then it can be a really interesting and fun year.”
