British "Mercedes" driver George Russell has admitted to being concerned about the performance of the "Red Bull" car.
Idman.Biz reports that the pilot said this during pre-season tests in Bahrain.
"I'm not particularly involved in the engine scandal and, frankly, I don't know much about the (compression ratio) issue. As I understand it, this information was leaked from employees of other teams passing from team to team.
I don't think we should be looking at ourselves. We have to look at the most competitive car on the grid and right now that's Red Bull. Their advantage isn't a small step forward. We're talking about 0.5-1 seconds per lap thanks to the energy recovery system.
It's pretty terrifying to see such a difference. Red Bull has always made very good cars for the last 15 years, even without a powerful engine. For most of us, these tests were a real discovery," Russell said.
It should be reminded that the engine scandal occurred before pre-season tests began: the teams accused Mercedes2 of the power unit being illegal due to possible manipulation of the compression ratio.