Christian Horner has backed Ferrari to be Red Bull’s closest challengers at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend, shunning Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in the process.

Team principal Horner has been the major story of the F1 season after he was the subject of an internal investigation in February after accusations – which he denies – of ‘coercive behaviour’ towards a female colleague were made against him, before he was cleared.

This hasn’t impacted Red Bull’s progress on the track though, with the team – who have won the previous two constructors’ championships – dominating the early stages of the campaign.

Max Verstappen is chasing a fourth consecutive world championship and the Dutchman looks on course for that after winning three out of the opening four races in 2024, with team-mate Sergio Perez finishing second on those occasions.

Verstappen’s progress was only halted by an early retirement in Australia, where Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc came first and second respectively.  In fact, Sainz is the only driver other than Verstappen to win a race across the past 22.

Christian Horner has backed Ferrari to be Red Bull’s closest challengers at the Chinese GP

Horner snubbed Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, who are enduring a difficult campaign so far

Verstappen has won three out of four races as he chases a fourth successive world title

And Horner, speaking ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, felt the Italian team are Red Bull’s biggest rivals going forwards.

‘Yeah, I think that Ferrari definitely at that circuit [Melbourne] were competitive, and we saw on Friday that their race pace was competitive,’ Horner told The Mirror.

‘And we expect them to probably be our closest competitor there [in China].

‘It’s a good circuit. The first corner goes on forever, and with the high-speed corners onto the back street as well, it’s always been very punishing on the front left tyre.

‘It’s got a sprint race as well, first sprint race of the year – so that’s another challenge. (There are) a lot of points available, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes.’

Horner’s snub of Hamilton and Mercedes comes at a time when they are enduring a dismal campaign with the Brit ninth in the championship.

Neither the seven-time world champion nor team-mate George Russell have secured a podium finish this season, and Hamilton now hasn’t won a race since December 2021.

Hamilton has finished 7th, 7th, DNF and 9th this year and heads to China hoping for a drastic improvement in his fortunes after bemoaning his team in Japan.

Horner felt Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were Red Bull’s closest challengers

Horner is hoping to guide his team to a third successive constructors’ championship title

‘There were two really terrible [sets of] hard tyres to run through,’ Hamilton said after coming ninth in Suzuka.

‘It was a real challenge today. I think I picked up a bit of damage at the beginning when Charles (Leclerc) came around the outside.

‘I had huge understeer for the first stint and couldn’t turn the car. The hard tyre was pretty bad and the medium was much better.

‘In hindsight, we should have kept two medium tyres, but in general the car was pretty bad today.’