Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff says Ferrari has made a step forward this year which is comparable to the gains they made ahead of last season.
Wolff made his remarks in the FIA press conference after Ferrari headed the times on Friday at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“They are pushing us very hard and you’ve seen today that it’s raw performance and we have seen the performance in the last couple of races,” he said.
Wolff believes Ferrari’s recent reliability troubles have come about because of the scale of the gains they have made.
“Ferrari hasn’t been able to pull it together because they made another big step from ’15 to ’16, similar to the step from of ’14 to ’15, and in order to have the roll properly and deliver and be reliable that is obviously not an easy task.”
“In terms of sheer performance, they are really pushing us. This is good, this is how the competition should be.”
However Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene described Mercedes as “the strongest [team] that I saw in the last ten years” and played down the significance of Ferrari’s table-topping performance.
“It was a good Friday, not a bad one,” he said. “But unfortunately you’re not gaining position in the grid or points in the championship so it’s a good start but the weekend’s it still long.”
evered7 (@evered7)
15th April 2016, 10:26
Honestly, Renault needs to up their game big time. Tired of these two downplaying their team’s strength. RB will be a force if Renault can close the gap on these two.
Then there will be just working no more talking on who is the best.
Maddme
15th April 2016, 10:28
RB will be on Mercedes power next season, if not directly, through Aston Martin…
markp
15th April 2016, 10:33
They should build their own engine instead of looking for hand outs from direct rivals. Most teams cannot do this but they have so much money they can.
pastaman (@)
15th April 2016, 12:06
There is no point in any new manufacturer creating a power unit at this point in the regulations. Maybe 2020
Sonics (@sonicslv)
15th April 2016, 11:57
Why would Mercedes want to supply RB next season, especially under different name? The problem is not Mercedes afraid of losing to customer team, but they want the benefit of younger market that Red Bull has, which Red Bull failed to supply their promotion offer on last year “talk”. Supplying their engine under different name certainly the exact opposite of their interest.
iFelix (@ifelix)
15th April 2016, 11:38
Can Ferrari give Mercedes a genuine run for their money? I hope so but keep my optimism in check till I see real signs of it on race day (and perhaps qualifying).