Ricciardo confident Red Bull capable of winning races

Daniel Ricciardo remains confident that Red Bull are ready to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari for race victories in 2018. The Australian recovered from eighth on the grid to finish fourth in the season-opening race in Melbourne, but team-mate Max Verstappen was frustrated in sixth.

Both Red Bull drivers spent long stretches of the Australian Grand Prix stuck behind a rival car - Ricciardo chasing Kimi Raikkonen for the final podium place, while Verstappen was unable to find a way beyond the McLaren of Fernando Alonso.

Renault's continued progress and a jump forward in aerodynamic performance are expected to help Red Bull maintain their impressive end-of-season form from 2017 and Ricciardo is confident they can make a splash at this week's Bahrain Grand Prix.

"Even that was after 20 odd laps," Ricciardo said of him setting the fastest lap at Albert Park.

"I was pushing behind Kimi hoping he'd make a mistake, so I wasn't nursing the tyres. A few laps towards the end I did two easier laps just to create some space, and then I pushed that lap.

"I knew I could go quicker but I didn't think it was that much quicker. In clear air we were actually very, very strong.

"Even with the Haas, my engineer said 'how much quicker could you go?' [if not behind them] and I said 'maybe three tenths if they went into the pits'. I was a second quicker the lap they pitted. So we had a lot more in the bag.

"If we have the same car on Sunday [in Bahrain] that we had in Melbourne on Sunday then I think we will be very close. It is a different track, whatever, but if those circumstances are the same then we will be very close."

Despite his confidence in race trim, Ricciardo does not expect Red Bull to hold the edge in qualifying, after Lewis Hamilton took pole in Australia by six tenths from Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen.

"Saturday [it is] probably more from the engine," said Ricciardo. "I don't think we are going to have what Mercedes or Ferrari have in qualifying.

"You use everything, but their everything seems to be a bit more than our everything. In the race we are just a bit easier on the tyres, but I am not really sure why that was different.

"So, qualifying we need to find something, we don't want to say it is just the engine, we want to find more with the car, but the car didn't feel too bad in qualifying.

"We ran out of front wing. Ideally, we would have had more front end in the car, but otherwise there probably was not too much more we would have changed."