Photo: Race Pictures

Red Bull firmly shut down Wolff narrative: 'We are not the benchmark'

13:36, 13 Feb

Updated: 14:51, 13 Feb

byTobia Elia

Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has dismissed Toto Wolff’s claims that the RB22 is currently the benchmark compared to the rest of the field.

“We are not the benchmark, for sure. You see clearly the top three teams, Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren, are in front of us”

- Pierre Wachè

Wachè push back on Wolff comments

At the start of testing in Bahrain, the comments from the Mercedes team principal and CEO caused quite a stir, as he played down rumours of the W17 being the favourite and instead claimed that the RB22 was ahead, particularly in terms of energy deployment.

Asked where Red Bull currently sits in the pecking order, Waché told GPblog among other media: “It's difficult to say. We are not the benchmark, for sure. You see clearly the top three teams, Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren, are in front of us, looks like from what our analysis is, and we are behind. There is where we think we are at the moment.

“It's difficult to say that about the others because the run plan of everybody, the level of fuel they run, the level of power they run, is difficult to say, but it's currently our analysis that it would be wrong to do so, we don't spend too much time on that. We try to focus on how we improve our own work.”

Verstappen during testing in Bahrain - Photo: Race Pictures

McLaren’s Marshall rejects Wolff’s ‘benchmark’ Red Bull claim

McLaren’s chief designer has also gone against the grain in response to the comments made by Wolff.

According to Marshall, there is no clear dominant team under the current regulations, with the Briton stressing that the competitive picture is far closer than some have claimed. In his view, the grid is much tighter overall, with no single outfit holding a decisive advantage at this stage.

Read the full story here.