Liam Lawson reacted with a smile to comments made by Toto Wolff, who recently suggested that the new Red Bull 2026 power unit could provide up to a full second per lap advantage to the teams of Milton Keynes and Faenza.
The New Zealander, driving for Racing Bulls during the first pre-season tests in Bahrain, called the Mercedes team principal’s statement significantly exaggerated. “A second faster per lap than everyone else? Who said that?” he remarked. Red Bull and Racing Bulls completed their first official kilometers with the Red Bull Powertrains engine at the Sakhir circuit, marking a historic milestone for the Austrian team, which for the first time fielded a power unit designed and built in collaboration with Ford. The debut was closely watched by the entire Formula 1 grid.
Among those most surprised by the speculation was Toto Wolff himself, who openly spoke about a huge performance advantage for the new RB22 compared to the rest of the field. Lawson, however, tempered that claim while acknowledging the encouraging signs: “In terms of performance, it’s hard to say, because we have no idea what the others are doing.” His words bring the discussion back to more realistic terms, at a time when varying fuel loads, differentiated programs, and technical experiments make timing data far from conclusive. The true value of the new Red Bull power unit will only be revealed once the 2026 season begins.
Liam Lawson’s comments
Liam Lawson spoke directly about Toto Wolff’s remarks on the Red Bull power unit after the first three days of testing in Bahrain.
“A second faster per lap than everyone else? Who said that?” the New Zealander joked. “Oh my god. We’ll see, of course. Frankly, the power units are working very well at the moment. That’s a positive sign.”
“But in terms of outright performance, it’s difficult to say, because we don’t know what the others are doing. So yes, I think we are definitely strong in terms of performance. However, I wouldn’t say we are a second faster than everyone else. But we’ll find out soon. So far, everything is going well.”
As highlighted by many drivers in recent days, the new 2026 cars present challenges in several areas, and Lawson confirmed he shares a similar feeling. “Yes, it’s pretty difficult to drive [the new car],” he added. “Especially here with very worn tires. So this year we slide much more, and that makes driving quite tricky.”
“At the moment, I’d say there’s still a lot to learn to optimize the driving of this car between short runs and qualifying with battery management, and also during long runs. It’s definitely a learning curve,” Liam Lawson concluded.
Liam Lawson’s lighthearted dismissal of Toto Wolff’s “one second” claim suggests that while Red Bull-Ford has produced a robust and competitive engine, the paddock is currently engaged in a game of psychological warfare. By framing Red Bull as the runaway favorite, Mercedes may be attempting to shift the pressure away from their own technical developments. For Liam Lawson and the Racing Bulls team, the focus remains on taming a car that is “tough to drive” and mastering the steep learning curve of 2026 energy management before the lights go out in Melbourne.
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