BARCELONA, Spain -- Daniel Ricciardo says there is "no big secret" to Red Bull's 2017 car, though he is convinced there is more to come from the RB13 before the Australian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo finished the opening day of the second winter test in second position, finishing 0.174s off Felipe Massa's benchmark with an ultra-soft tyre run. Red Bull completed 89 laps -- half the amount of Williams and Ferrari -- and has had a fairly low-key start to 2017 despite big expectations about their ability to perform under the 2017 regulations.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is one man not reading too much into Red Bull's average start to pre-season, saying this week he doubts we have seen the team's real pace so far.
When told about Wolff's comments, Ricciardo said: "We will keep them in their seats for now. We will see. At the moment there is no big secret or anything. We are not holding 2 seconds in our pocket, but we definitely feel that we can still get more out of the car. But I think probably everyone can.
"Hopefully not Williams, hopefully that was their best today. Ferrari and Mercedes can probably still get more out of theirs. So once that all happens we will see. It is looking alright. It is now my third day in the car, and I would say day 1 to day 2, and then day 2 to day 3 I am getting happier with the car."
Tuesday delivered another impressive day for Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel finishing third on the soft tyre -- 0.006s behind Ricciardo's ultra-soft time and 0.180s off Massa's benchmark, set on super-softs. Lewis Hamilton has labelled Ferrari the early favourites based on their early pace and Ricciardo thinks it is time to start taking the Italian outfit's times seriously.
"They certainly look quick. I am sure Mercedes will still be very quick. But [Ferrari] are looking good. Even though Williams did not run much last week, the day they did get a good run in, I actually thought they looked quite good as well. So today they showed that. It is going to be interesting, Melbourne will be a nice little story.