Toto Wolff: Red Bull gaining 'a second per lap' on the straights

Sakhir, Bahrain – Day one of 2026 pre-season testing has delivered an early shockwave through the Formula 1 paddock after Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff claimed Red Bull’s new in-house power unit is delivering “a second per lap” worth of straight-line energy deployment over its rivals.

Speaking to Sky Sports after a marathon opening session in which Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari each logged more than 100 trouble-free laps, Wolff conceded that the Milton Keynes squad has set the benchmark with both the RB22 chassis and its debut Red Bull Powertrains engine.

“I was hoping they would be worse than they are,” Wolff admitted. “They have done a very good job. The car, the power unit, are the benchmark at the moment I would say. Then obviously you have Max in the car—the combination is strong.”

The Austrian’s assessment carries added weight given the backdrop of a winter dominated by technical squabbles over Mercedes’ own compression-ratio concept, a dispute that has prompted the FIA to prepare regulatory action after four of the five current suppliers lodged formal complaints.

Red Bull’s reliability had been widely questioned ahead of testing, with team chief Laurent Mekies warning in February that the embryonic powertrain division would face “sleepless nights and significant corrections” during the opening months of the championship. Those fears have yet to materialise. The RB22 circulated with metronomic consistency on Wednesday, while sister squad VCARB also praised the Austrian unit’s durability.

Wolff highlighted the manner in which Red Bull is able to deploy electrical energy down the straights, a performance vector he quantified as worth “a second per lap, over consecutive laps. On a single lap we’ve seen it before. But now we have seen it on 10 consecutive laps with the same kind of straight-line deployment.”

The comments mark a dramatic swing in pre-season narrative. Entering Bahrain, Mercedes and its customer outfits were viewed as best-placed to exploit the 2026 regulations. Instead, Wolff now finds himself managing expectations, stressing that “the first official day of testing… is always the caveat” while simultaneously acknowledging that, “as per today, they’ve set the benchmark.”

With five more days of running remaining in the Sakhir desert, all eyes will be on whether Red Bull’s early advantage proves sustainable—or whether Mercedes, Ferrari and the rest can close the straight-line gap before the season-opening Grand Prix.