Red Bull is still ahead, admits Ferrari boss, Fred Vasseur, but definitely feeling the pressure.

While a brake issues saw Max Verstappen retire from the Australian Grand Prix, allowing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to claim a 1-2 for Ferrari, Lando Norris' win in Miami was on merit, with a little bit of luck in terms of the Safety Car and its timing.

Having only failed to win one Grand Prix last season, Red Bull has already lost two and though nobody is predicting that the Austrian team's reign is coming to an end any time soon, it is clear that the gap is closing.

While Fred Vasseur believes that Red Bull remains the benchmark, he is of the opinion that the Austrian team is feeling the pressure and that this will in turn lead to mistakes which Ferrari and its rivals must take full advantage of.

"I think honestly that Red Bull is still ahead," says the Frenchman, "probably Max could have won without the story of the Safety Car," he adds.

"I don't want to draw conclusions on this, but he had pole position and they still have a small advantage," he continues. "What is true is that, is that compared to one year ago, when we are able to do a good job and to put everything together, we are there. It means we are putting them a little bit under pressure and they have to be a bit more aggressive with the strategy.

"They are not anymore in the comfort zone of last year where it doesn't matter what happened," he adds, "after Lap 2 they were in front. I think that's a game changer in the management of the race.

"I think this is an opportunity for us, because if we are doing another small step, I think we will be in a really good position to fight with them every single weekend."

At McLaren, Andrea Stella isn't entirely convinced.

"I think yes, we improved the car," he said, McLaren having introduced a raft of upgrades in Miami, all of which were only available to Norris. "We know on the numbers how much we improved it, and it's material, you should see it in lap time. But I think this race for Red Bull, it was a bit of a struggle.

"So, before we say the pace we saw is a representation of the future, I'm not going to put my signature on this statement. We take this positive; we take this encouragement... if anything, it's even more energy to develop, possibly even faster than what we are doing.

"But in my view, if you want to fight consistently Red Bull, we need to deliver another package like the one that we have delivered here. Because like before, in Japan we were six-tenths away in qualifying of Red Bull. In China, again, we were like a few tenths away.

"So it would be completely unrealistic to think that what we have seen here is the updated picture of competitiveness. I think here Red Bull sort of didn't get the most out of their package."