Stefano Domenciali, the Ferrari team principal, believes the work of Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing's chief designer, has allowed the Austrian team to set the pace in the opening races of the new season.
Red Bull won the first two races in Australia and Malaysia through Sebastian Vettel and would have won all three but for Lewis Hamilton's late pass to take victory in China three weeks ago.
Domenciali credited Newey, who has also designed championship winning cars at Williams and McLaren before achieving the feat with Red Bull last year, for giving the team a speed advantage over the rest of the pack.
He told the German publication Auto Bild Motorsport: "It's true, Red Bull has built a better car.
"Why? Because Adrian Newey is simply more creative. We need to improve on this.
"For me it's a fact that Newey makes the difference between Red Bull and the other teams. He and his technicians do a better job."
Ferrari have brought a number of new parts to their car for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix, but Nikolas Tombazis, the team's chief designer, acknowledged that the developments were unlikely to catapult the team to the front of the grid.
"We had to do something and our car had a lot of performance to recover," he said.
"We have improved but there is still a way to go."
Felipe Massa, the team's Brazilian driver, was equally unwilling to predict how much of a step forward Ferrari have been able to provide him.
"It's always difficult to say how the new parts will go. I hope we understand so many important things that makes the car stronger but we don't know how it is going to be," he said in yesterday's press conference.
"We always have an idea how it is going to be with the new pieces but we don't have an idea about the other teams or how everyone is working."