Wolff baffled: "They were 14 bhp behind, now they are 14 bhp ahead"

Ferrari has taken full advantage of the title fight between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes in 2021 by throwing itself into the development of this year's car early in the season. Toto Wolff calls the Italian team's progress "unprecedented".

Despite that approach, Ferrari managed to secure third place in the championship at the expense of McLaren after a major engine update. At the same time, the team positioned itself as one of the favourites ahead of the new Formula One season, although team boss Mattia Binotto continued to vigorously deny that this was the case.

Wolff finds progress of Ferrari remarkable

The huge step that Ferrari has made causes bewilderment for Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. "I can only congratulate them," he says to AS.com about the strong package of the Italian racing stable, which is doing extremely well in terms of both performance and reliability.

The Austrian sees that a big step has been taken in engine power in particular. "Previously they were about 14bhp behind, but now they are another 14bhp ahead," he points out. Wolff finds that step remarkably large. "We have never seen such a big progress in such a short time," concludes the Mercedes team boss.