The head of Mercedes Formula 1, Toto Wolff, has asserted that Red Bull Ford‘s new power unit has emerged as the top engine during the Bahrain testing sessions.
Following Honda’s temporary exit from the F1 scene—only to later team up with Aston Martin—Christian Horner, the former CEO, championed the initiative for Red Bull to develop its own power units. Subsequently, the company partnered with Ford to establish the newly branded Red Bull Ford Powertrains at its Milton Keynes facility.
Despite Red Bull recruiting a number of personnel from competing engine manufacturers, including Mercedes, initial predictions suggested that Red Bull would struggle to make its inaugural power units competitive at the start of the 2026 season.
However, the DM01 engine, named in honor of Red Bull’s late chairman Dietrich Mateschitz, surprised both supporters and critics alike by demonstrating reliability from the outset during the shakedown in Barcelona. The performance of both its V6 engine and hybrid systems showed encouraging results.
Wolff commented that, after a pre-season period where Mercedes was seen as the frontrunner following the shakedown, Red Bull had managed to make further advances on the first morning of testing in Bahrain, particularly in energy deployment.
“I was hoping they would be less competitive than they are, as they have done an impressive job,” Wolff remarked about Red Bull after Max Verstappen topped the morning session on Wednesday. “Currently, their car and power unit are the standard to beat. Plus, having Max behind the wheel makes for a formidable combination.”
When pressed on why he deemed Red Bull’s engine, which also powers the sister Racing Bulls car, as the benchmark, he elaborated: “Take a look at the energy deployment today. They can utilize significantly more energy down the straights than anyone else, and this is evident over multiple laps.”
“While we’ve observed this on single laps before, today we witnessed it over ten consecutive laps with consistent straight-line energy deployment. Based on today’s testing, which always comes with a caveat, they have certainly set the benchmark.”
This unexpected admission from Wolff arrives amid ongoing discussions regarding Mercedes’ compression ratio strategy, with rival teams striving to implement a rule change prior to the Australian Grand Prix that could potentially disadvantage the Silver Arrows and its customer teams.
Nevertheless, Wolff contended that the excitement surrounding his power units has been somewhat exaggerated. “I believe everyone got a bit too enthusiastic about the performance of the Mercedes engine-powered teams,” he stated. “And I think our competitors have perhaps overreacted, suggesting a potential embarrassment, which I don’t believe is the case at all.”
