It is too soon to say that Ferrari is the definite favourite in 2019.

That is the view of Christian Horner, the Red Bull boss. He was responding to claims the early pecking order is Ferrari with a clear lead, ahead of Red Bull-Honda and Mercedes.

"If there was a winter world championship, Ferrari would win it every year," he told Spain's Marca.

"But you get no points in the winter.

"Clearly they have arrived here with a strong car, but these are not even close to the temperatures we will race at."

Indeed, Red Bull is sounding extremely bullish about its new works relationship with Honda.

"There is a change of rules this year, so the winter test times are somewhat confusing right now," Horner explained.

"I don't think they give us a good idea of what the first race will be like, although I could be wrong. But the tests can be deceptive."

At any rate, Horner says Red Bull is in better shape with Honda compared with the customer Renault engines it gave up at the end of 2018.

"What is certain is that we now have more power than we had last year," he said. "What we don't know is what Ferrari, McLaren and Renault have done over the winter.

"We will only have a real vision of the situation after the first three or four races. We're touching wood, because for the moment the signs are good."