Horner: Hamilton has never been a bigger favorite than now

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner believes that Lewis Hamilton is the number one driver at Mercedes this year, and that the Briton has already started playing mind games ahead of the new season.

At the end of the sixth day of Formula 1 preseason testing in Barcelona, Horner told Racer, "[Hamilton] is the clear favorite; he's the de facto number one in that team now."

Asked if the 2017 season is going to be about two teams - Mercedes versus Ferrari - Horner replied, "Well, I hope there's three."

"Mercedes have won more than 50 grands prix over the last three years, we've won five and Ferrari have won three."

"It would be wonderful to have three teams going head-to-head each grand prix weekend and you having to get it all right on the day to come out on top. That's the utopia of hopefully what this season will be."

"Mercedes are the absolute favorite. Ferrari look like they've got a good car, we're confident we've got a good car and we've got a strong team that will be developing hard throughout the season," added Horner.

In Spain Hamilton told media that he believes Ferrari are the favourites going into the new season, But Horner thinks differently, "Lewis is obviously trying to put as much pressure [as possible] on anybody else. He's never been a bigger favorite than he currently is. So he's probably... he'll be talking Sauber up at the moment!"