Bull

Wolff’s remarks come in the context of an ongoing row over the legality of the Mercedes engine.

Rivals believe Mercedes have found a loophole that allows them to run the engine above the permitted compression ratio.

This – a measurement of the cylinder displacement between the two extremes of the piston stroke – is limited to 16:1, and the rules dictate it will be measured at ambient temperature with the engine at rest.

Mercedes’ rivals believe they have found a way to use materials technology and thermal expansion to run the engine to a higher ratio and are pushing for a rule clarification before the start of the season next month.

Mercedes have not denied they are doing this, but insist the engine is legal.

Rivals have claimed the trick is worth as much as 0.3secs per lap, while Wolff said the gain was “a few horsepower – in England you would say a couple, which is more like two and three.”

He added: “Lobbying from the other engine manufacturers has massively ramped up over the last few months.

“I mean, secret meetings, secret letters to the FIA, which obviously there is no such thing as secret in this sport.

“Everybody was a little bit too excited about the performance of the Mercedes engine-powered teams.

“And I think that our colleagues from the other brands have been carried away a little bit that this could be embarrassing, which I don’t think it is at all.”

On the prospect of the rules changing before the start of the season, he said: “There is a governance process. And if that governance were to vote for an engine regulation change, you just have to take it on the chin.”

But he said: “The very essence of Formula 1 is to find performance, to attract the best engineers and the best people, give them freedom to develop regulations and once it goes for you and another time it goes against you.”

Williams team principal James Vowles, who is a Mercedes customer, said: “The PU that we have in the car is completely compliant with the regulations. This is a meritocracy where the best engineering outcome effectively gets rewarded as a result, not punished as a result.

“Right now, I don’t think there is a person in the pit lane that can tell you what is the best PU. We are focused on one detail.

“My hope is that sense prevails and we as a sport recognise that we are here to be a meritocracy. The best engineering solution wins as a result of it and therefore we are where we are right now.”

Seven of the 11 teams were running on Monday – Red Bull, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Haas, Alpine and the new Audi and Cadillac teams.

McLaren said last week that they would not take their car on to the track until after day one as a result of trying to maximise design time. Ferrari, after an initial test at their factory last week, had also announced they would not run on Monday.

Aston Martin have said their new car will not be ready until Thursday, and Williams are missing the test entirely after delays to their design and production programme.

No times were issued, and all teams ran into at least some technical issues as they learned about their new cars.

Rival teams were impressed by the amount of mileage the two Red Bull teams managed considering it was the first full day of running with their new in-house engine, which has been developed in conjunction with new partner Ford.

Before the test started, McLaren and Red Bull revealed images of their 2026 cars for the first time.

McLaren, who won the drivers’ and constructors’ championship double last year for the first time since 1998, showed the car in the one-off testing livery it will run in this week.

Red Bull showed studio shots of their car, carefully chosen to disguise key design features.

Russell added: “We are pleased with our day, but I’ve also been impressed by several other teams.

“The Red Bull power unit has completed a lot of laps which, given that it’s their first engine they’ve built, means they’ve clearly done a good job.

“Haas also managed a similar amount of running to ourselves, so the Ferrari power unit has also put together plenty of mileage. It’s not quite how it was in 2014! The sport has evolved so much since then and the level, in every single aspect, is so high now.”

Audi have taken over the Sauber team for the German car company’s first entry into F1. They suffered a reliability issue that prevented Bortoleto driving in the afternoon.

Team principal Jonathan Wheatley said: “We had a technical issue, spotted it and decided to switch the car off. Plenty of testing this year and wanted to really understand the problems, see what the weather conditions are and decide whether we run tomorrow.”

Rain is forecast for Tuesday’s second day of the test, during which teams are permitted to run on a maximum of three of the available days.

Bortoleto said: “The cars are very different. I feel these are going to be slower but it’s very cool to have the power unit being 50% electric – you go out of the corner and you have so much speed being deployed and you can see how strong the engine is.

“You need to adapt but it’s still a racing car.”

Racing Bulls’ Lawson said: “[The car is] very different to drive and I haven’t got my head around it fully yet. We will keep learning. It feels like there is a lot more we can do as drivers to make a difference, potentially, but right now it’s very early days, very hard to know where we are for now just trying to optimise the car.

“[The power unit] feels good. But it’s very hard to tell – the main thing is reliability at the moment.

“We have done a good amount of laps today and the only issues we had today were safety precautions, not actual issues. But hard to know where we’re at compared to everyone else.”