Mercedes point to 'interesting' Red Bull, Ferrari comparison at Barcelona test

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has pointed to an “interesting” difference between some of the top teams at the Barcelona shakedown.

The F1 cars collectively took to the track for the first time this year last week as the first pieces of data were gathered by the teams.

The challengers have been built under a significant new set of technical regulations, which includes a boost in the electrical output.

It has left teams testing different ways of recovering and deploying energy throughout the lap, with Wolff noting that methods varied across the top teams in Barcelona.

“I think the pre-investment in tools and in simulations and doing the correlation work will be beneficial,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365. 

“But in the same way, the learning curve will be steep. Once we see what the others do, we will better understand.

“It was quite interesting to see on the Ferrari and on the Red Bull the way they were managing energy in Barcelona. It was different to us. It wasn’t better, but it was just different.”

Several drivers have already noted that wheel-to-wheel racing could look different this year as the competitors learn to utilise the energy in the right spots.

Wolff highlighted that those who uncover how to best utilise the energy will end the year on top.

“Learning from seeing the others, learning from the more miles we will be doing, the challenges in the races where we realise ‘hold on a minute, on Sunday, we haven’t mapped it in the way you’re winning races'.

“Maybe we’ve mapped it for a quick lap, and then suddenly you fall back. So the most clever guys in the car and on the engineering side are going to win.”