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Lando Norris is seeking greater energy efficiency from his Mercedes HPP F1 power unit, after Red Bull Powertrains' "good job."

During the test in Bahrain, the RBPT engine in the back of the Red Bull and Racing Bulls machines caught the eye, with Max Verstappen's strong running on Wednesday morning leading Toto Wolff to declare that Mercedes HPP could not match the energy efficiency of the new RBPT engine.

Red Bull was also labelled as the "benchmark" with George Russell describing the GPS data as "pretty scary" in contrast to his own Mercedes unit.

Norris and Russell are two of the eight drivers on the 22-car grid who will be using Mercedes HPP engines in 2026, with the reigning world champion describing what improvements he would like to see heading into the season.

"I mean, there are so many things now, it is about deployment, about battery efficiency," Norris explained to media, including RacingNews365.

"It is something more for the HPP side, and they've done a good job so far, so it is about looking at the details, at the information and trying to turn it into a better power unit altogether, but I think we need more efficiency.

"But there are pros and cons, and it is not an easy thing to get; they will have done it already, so we will have to learn.

"There might be some little things I can do better, but it is certainly not going to make a difference to what [Red Bull Powertrains] are doing.

"They have a good power unit, they deploy and have a lot of efficiency, and we need to understand how they have that.

"There are things I can do better, some as McLaren we can do better, but also from a Mercedes HPP side, there are certainly areas we need to improve.

"But Red Bull seems to have done a very good job, and the power unit seems to be very strong, so fair play to them, and at the minute, they're a good step ahead of us."

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