Red Bull boss Christian Horner has praised Ferrari for ending Mercedes’ engine dominance at the front of Formula 1.
Having struggled initially in the hybrid era, the Scuderia has made tremendous gains, first matching the power of the Silver Arrow last year and now exceeded it by a considerable margin.
Indeed, it was that power combined with a low drag chassis that enabled Ferrari to dominate at Spa and Monza with Charles Leclerc taking two wins.
“It’s extremely impressive. They [Ferrari] are the benchmark in the engine department in Formula 1 at the moment,” Horner told Channel 4.
“Mercedes were there for four-and-a-half years and suddenly, they’ve got a dose of our medicine, looking at the speed traces going ballistic.
“Hats off to the Ferrari guys, they’ve found a way of extracting that horsepower and it’s up to the rest of the competition to narrow that gap.”
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Last week, there were rumours of unhappiness among their rivals, who were questioning the source of Ferrari’s performance advantage.
Asked his view though, the Red Bull chief explained it is unlikely to be one reason alone.
“To be honest I don’t know, it’s a pretty closed shop in Ferrari,” he admitted.
“They are pushing the boundaries and you have to think some of it is coming from the electrical power, the combustion I think they’ve got some pretty juicy fuels that they’re running as well.
“It’s probably a combination. These things are never usually a silver bullet, it’s probably a combination of factors.”