Dr Helmut Marko has claimed that drivers wanting to win the 2017 world championship need to be at the wheel of a Mercedes or a Red Bull.
Ferrari began this season as Mercedes's closest challenger, but Red Bull has sped past the Italian team as the sport enters its August summer shutdown.
"The goal for this year is to keep second place in the constructors' championship, win more races and then go for the title next year," said team boss Christian Horner, whose drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were both on the Hockenheim podium behind winner Lewis Hamilton.
Gerhard Berger, who was the first Red Bull-sponsored athlete, thinks that Ricciaro and Verstappen is the ideal pairing for the energy drink-owned team.
"Maybe already, but certainly by no later than next season, it is the best driving pairing in Formula 1," he told Auto Bild.
Red Bull official Marko - the architect of that lineup - agrees, saying: "Our engine manufacturer Renault is now properly on the gas, our chassis is always one of the best, so it is not arrogant to argue that a driver must be sitting in a Red Bull or a Mercedes to win a title in the next three years."
The championship emerges from its summer break on August 28 in Belgium.
