LONDON, United Kingdom, Feb 11 – Red Bull are “the benchmark” in Formula 1 as pre-season testing begins in earnest in Bahrain, says Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris was fastest on day one of the first of two tests in Bahrain, 0.129 seconds quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
But Wolff said he had seen on Mercedes’ data that Red Bull’s new engine was more effective than those of their rivals.
“They are able to deploy far more energy on the straights than everybody else,” Wolff said. “You are speaking a second, over consecutive laps.
“On a single lap we have seen it before, but now we have seen it on 10 consecutive laps with the same kind of straight-line deployment.
“I would say that as per today, on the first official day of testing, which is always with the caveat of that, they have set the benchmark.”
New engine designs are part of the biggest rules overhaul in F1 history this season, with power-units, chassis, tyres and fuel all new.
The 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engines have a near 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine and electrical components in terms of total power output.
Energy recovery and deployment are central to performance for the engines, which are starved of electrical energy, with the battery being depleted and recharged on virtually every straight.
There are four ways of recovering energy: under braking; revving the engine in corners; lifting off early before a corner; and harvesting while still on full throttle.
With so much resting on the hybrid engines, any gain in deployment could be critical in terms of competitiveness.
Headline lap times in testing are notoriously unreliable as indicators of form as the specification in which the cars are running is not made public.
Norris set his best time on the C2 compound tyres, Verstappen on the softer C3.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third fastest, 0.521secs slower than Norris, ahead of Haas driver Esteban Ocon.
Verstappen drove all day for Red Bull, but most other teams split the running between their two drivers.
The exception were Aston Martin, for whom only Lance Stroll drove the new Adrian Newey-designed car at the start of the team’s engine partnership with Honda.
Stroll, whose running in the second session was curtailed by what the team said was “a data anomaly with the power-unit”, was more than five seconds off the pace. Fernando Alonso takes over the car on Thursday.
Engine trick ‘worth a few horsepower’
Wolff’s remarks come in the context of an ongoing row over the legality of the Mercedes engine.
Rivals believe Mercedes have found a loophole that allows them to run the engine above the permitted compression ratio.
This – a measurement of the cylinder displacement between the two extremes of the piston stroke – is limited to 16:1, and the rules dictate it will be measured at ambient temperature with the engine at rest.
Mercedes’ rivals believe they have found a way to use materials technology and thermal expansion to run the engine to a higher ratio and are pushing for a rule clarification before the start of the season next month.
Mercedes have not denied they are doing this, but insist the engine is legal.
Rivals have claimed the trick is worth as much as 0.3secs per lap, while Wolff said the gain was “a few horsepower – in England you would say a couple, which is more like two and three”.
He added: “Lobbying from the other engine manufacturers has massively ramped up over the last few months.
“I mean, secret meetings, secret letters to the FIA, which obviously there is no such thing as secret in this sport.
“Everybody was a little bit too excited about the performance of the Mercedes engine-powered teams.
“And I think that our colleagues from the other brands have been carried away a little bit that this could be embarrassing, which I don’t think it is at all.”
On the prospect of the rules changing before the start of the season, he said: “There is a governance process. And if that governance were to vote for an engine regulation change, you just have to take it on the chin.”
But he said: “The very essence of Formula 1 is to find performance, to attract the best engineers and the best people, give them freedom to develop regulations and once it goes for you and another time it goes against you.”
Williams team principal James Vowles, who is a Mercedes customer, said: “The PU that we have in the car is completely compliant with the regulations. This is a meritocracy where the best engineering outcome effectively gets rewarded as a result, not punished as a result.
“Right now, I don’t think there is a person in the pit lane that can tell you what is the best PU. We are focused on one detail.
“My hope is that sense prevails and we as a sport recognise that we are here to be a meritocracy. The best engineering solution wins as a result of it and therefore we are where we are right now.”
Fastest times on day one of first Bahrain test
1 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren, one minute 34.669 seconds
2 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull, +0.129secs
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari, +0.521
4 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Haas, +0.909
5 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren, +0.933
6 George Russell (GB) Mercedes, +1.439
7 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari, +1.764
8 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine, +2.096
9 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger), Audi +2.192
10 Alex Albon (Thi) Williams, +2.768
11 Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes, +2.960
12 Arvid Lindblad (GB) Racing Bulls, +3.276
13 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Williams, +3.552
14 Sergio Perez (Mex) Cadillac, +4.159
15 Gabriel Bortoleto (Bra) Audi, +4.481
16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Cadillac, +4.202
17 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin, +5.214
18 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine, +5.661
Drivers who did not run on Wednesday:
Isack Hadjar (Fra) Red Bull
Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin
Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls
Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas
