Christian Horner: Red Bull never dominated F1 as much as Mercedes

Horner's team won the world championship from 2010-13, taking Sebastian Vettel to a string of drivers' titles in tandem with its constructors' success.

But having called for the FIA to take action to peg back Mercedes, Horner argued that the need for change now was more dramatic than it was during Red Bull's glory period.

Asked if he appreciated the irony of a once-dominant team demanding equivalency, Horner replied: "I can understand, but when we were performing we never had the level of dominance that we are seeing, nowhere near.

"At any point in time that we did show a bit of form, the rules changed and we had to adapt to that.

"We had to adapt from fuelling to no fuelling, bodywork changes, double diffuser, no double diffuser, blown diffuser, engine mapping changes mid-season... you name it.

"Unless there is an intervention [from the FIA] like that, then we are set for a season with quite a broad running order."

Horner accepts that the performance of the Mercedes engine package is "impressive" even though he is calling for it to be restricted.

This comes against a backdrop of Renault struggling desperately both in terms of power and driveability.

The latter characteristic is critical for performance in Melbourne, which partly explains Red Bull's disappointing run to a lapped sixth with its sole Australian Grand Prix starter Daniel Ricciardo.

"I think it is through the whole package," Horner said of the Mercedes power unit's advantage.

"As with all these things, there is never a silver bullet.

"It is integration of the combustion unit, turbo, energy recovery and fuel consumption and how that integrates with drivability that they have [that is] enormously impressive."

Horner does not expect the FIA technical directive issued ahead of the Australian GP forcing teams to monitor fuel pressure at multiple points in the fuel system to make a significant difference to Mercedes.

"I don't think that is enough at the moment," he said.

"It could have a small effect, but it is minimal."

The Red Bull chief added that he did not think that the FIA's move was aimed at Mercedes specifically.