Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff admits worrying truth about Red Bull rivals

Laurent Mekies, Zak Brown, Toto Wolff, Generic, USGP, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Toto Wolff admits worrying truth about Red Bull F1 rivals

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Red Bull are the fastest out there

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 13 February 2026 10:59

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has released some rather damning comments about Red Bull's pace during pre-season testing in Bahrain.

F1 is currently at the Bahrain International Circuit for a three-day testing event ahead of the 2026 season, before another three-day test at the track later in February.

The increased amount of testing on offer for the teams this year is to allow them to iron out any potential issues when it comes to the new 2026 regulation changes.

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This year sees completely redesigned cars which are smaller, lighter and more nimble, but also sees new power units which have had the emphasis on electrical energy tripled compared to the 2025 power units.

This means that drivers are going to have more of a responsibility to manage the battery capacity, and they will need to know when to best utilise the 'overtake mode', which provides them with an extra 0.5 megajoules of power.

Now, Wolff has spoken out about how Red Bull seem to be the best team at maximising their power unit so far, after one full day of official pre-season testing in Bahrain.

He has hinted that they are managing to get the most out of each engine mode, and blow their rivals away, but he did add the caveat that it was very early into the allocated six days worth of testing that teams are getting in Bahrain.

"They are able to deploy far more energy on the straights than everybody else," Wolff told media when talking about Red Bull. "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."

F1 TESTING 2026: Bahrain schedule, start times and how to watch live

Will Mercedes and Red Bull be in a straight fight for the title?

The winter off-season has been dominated by talk of Mercedes having gained an advantage within the creation of their power unit, having found a trick regarding geometric compression ratios which could be worth as much as 0.3 seconds per lap.

Alternatively, Red Bull's off-season has been a little bit more negative, with the Milton Keynes-based outfit starting a new era of power unit production, which in itself could throw up several problems.

But Wolff's comments from day one in Bahrain have suggested that Red Bull are beginning to settle into the new regulation changes better than their rivals, and Max Verstappen did manage to complete a whopping 136 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday, more than any other driver.

A blockbuster title battle between four-time world champion Verstappen and Mercedes' star driver George Russell could be on the cards, something that all F1 fans would like to see given their fiery relationship in the past.

Red Bull Mercedes George Russell Toto Wolff Kimi Antonelli