Rivals will struggle to catch Red Bull - Briatore

Flavio Briatore has issued a sober warning to Red Bull’s rivals after the 2011 season opener.

"You don’t recover all those tenths in two months," the former Renault team boss told La Politica. "Half a second in formula one is huge.

"Red Bull are very well financed so I see it hard for them (the others) to play catch-up," said Briatore.

Others in the paddock are similarly pessimistic, like Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, who when asked by Bild newspaper if anyone can threaten Red Bull soon simply answered: "Nein (no)."

Yet McLaren and Ferrari are more confident, with the British team’s boss Martin Whitmarsh insisting that the MP4-26 made a one-second improvement in pace in the two weeks before Melbourne.

"If we make as much progress in the next ten days as in the last ten, it’ll be easy, won’t it?" he joked to The Independent newspaper.