Like Pitpass, four-time world champion, Max Verstappen is sceptical of Toto Wolff’s claim that the Red Bull power unit is the current benchmark.
Earlier this week, Wolff cited the Red Bull power unit as the one to beat.
“Look at the energy deployment today,” he told reporters on the first day of testing. “They are able to deploy far more energy on the straights than everybody else.
“Over consecutive laps,” he continued. “On a single lap we have seen it before, but now we have seen it on ten 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 a caveat, they have set the benchmark today,” he insisted.
Since then his claims have been echoed by several drivers, all of whom just happen to be driving Mercedes-powered cars, at a time the German manufacturer is embroiled in a bitter row over the legality of its engine.
Smoke and mirrors is how we called it, and Verstappen agrees.
“Let’s look back at the last ten years of winter testing,” said the Dutchman. “I don’t think you can say who is the world champion on day one, especially with a new rule set like this.
“For me personally, it’s more like diversion tactics,” he added. “But that’s okay. I mean, I focus on what we’re doing here with the team, because honestly, for us, there’s still so much to learn. This new rule set is so complex that we just want to do our laps and just go from there, to be honest.
“I think the start that we have had is just very nice,” he continued. “And everyone is very happy with that. Like the lap count that we did yesterday, for example. That’s just great. That’s exactly what we want to do. But it’s not a given.
“At the same time, we have worked, of course, for many years now to try and be here and be ready. But if it’s going to be enough to win, I don’t know. You don’t have a clue at the moment if that’s the case. Also what you see here now in testing, you won’t see in Melbourne. For many cars, many engines as well.
“And it’s normal, of course, that other people are hiding and trying to probably make us look really good. We don’t care. We just focus on ourselves. We just try to do the best we can. But yeah, I’m happy, of course, with how everything started. But there’s still such a massive room for improvement at the same time as well. Because of how complicated everything is.”