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Mercedes and their engine customers are talking up Red Bull’s chances after the second pre-season test in Bahrain. Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson has played a role in generating that hype.
With Red Bull Powertrains making their debut in 2026, the team were expecting to trail more established engine manufacturers like Mercedes and Ferrari. But if anything, the opposite may be true.
George Russell even claimed that Red Bull are pulling a second a lap on their rivals through energy deployment. The comments do have to be viewed with a degree of scepticism, of course.
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This year more than ever, the top teams are playing down their chances and talking up rivals. Verstappen fully expects Mercedes to lay down their superiority when the competitive action starts in Australia.
Liam Lawson adds to the hype around Red Bull’s 2026 F1 power unit
While Honda (Aston Martin) and Audi are only supplying one team this year, Red Bull have the advantage of data from Racing Bulls.
Mercedes’ power unit engineers studied Verstappen’s laps on higher fuel, but also Lawson’s telemetry with the same motor. They noticed that both drivers were able to achieve consistently elite top speeds.
As F1TV’s Alex Brundle explained during the final hour of testing, this is a testament to the ‘efficiency’ of the engine. He also suspects Mercedes are playing a ‘political’ game amid the furore over their fuel compression ratio loophole.
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“The Mercedes-engined teams and drivers are pointing at something very specific about Red Bull,” Brundle said. “It’s something to do with Verstappen’s race running specifically, but also backed up by some of the running that Lawson’s been doing in the RB.
“Beyond just one lap, that Red Bull is able to deliver high top speeds when it’s doing a longer race run. Why is that important? Because it shows that their power unit is really efficient in the way that it’s gathering energy and delivering it.
“That’s what caught the attention, along with it being a little bit of a political statement as well, of the teams with a Mercedes engine.”
Mercedes’ ‘political’ game with Red Bull explained
Perhaps, by talking up the performance of the Red Bull power unit, Mercedes are hoping to distract their rivals.
The theory was that the aforementioned loophole would deliver an extra three-tenths of performance per lap. But the appetite for a clampdown may wane if Mercedes aren’t seen to have the advantage.
It should be noted that Russell was significantly off the pace in his race run, though the track conditions were less favourable and Mercedes could still be concealing their true performance.
Mercedes have given the FIA a major dilemma with only weeks remaining before the new season. A late rule change could be seen as unfair to the Silver Arrows, particularly after they allegedly received assurances that they were compliant.
Equally, though, the sport’s governing body will not want rivals calling the legitimacy of the results into question if they believe the Mercedes engine is illegal. A crucial meeting on the issue is scheduled for next week.
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