{"id":497353,"date":"2026-02-22T19:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T19:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497353\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T19:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T19:34:09","slug":"f1-team-boss-points-to-red-bull-games-during-bahrain-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497353\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 team boss points to Red Bull ‘games’ during Bahrain testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams F1 team principal James Vowles has stated Red Bull was playing games with its power unit during pre-season testing in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

The engines have been put through a major change this year as F1 commences a new era under fresh technical regulations.<\/p>\n

Red Bull has committed to producing its own power unit in collaboration with Ford and consistently played down expectations over its competitiveness.<\/p>\n

But rival manufacturers were quick to point to its efficiency with energy management and deployment, with some suggesting it had the strongest power unit on the grid.<\/p>\n

Vowles, however, noticed a change from the Milton Keynes-based squad once noise about its abilities started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are games being played,\u201d Vowles told F1TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Bull looked really good until we spoke about their power unit. Then they\u2019ve turned it down quite a bit since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below the poll.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPecking order ‘hard to tell’ – Vowles<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the grid, eyes were drawn to Ferrari who unveiled a unique rear wing design during week two of testing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mercedes too has been labelled as expected front-runners for the opening round – but with so much change coming into effect, Vowles insisted the reality remains that it is too challenging to tell how the pecking order is stacking up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFerrari, well done to them, really,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re coming up with great innovations, and they are moving forward, and I think they are competitive as they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cMercedes, just because they came out the box really strong, and they\u2019ve been strong all days. You can\u2019t discount them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what I\u2019m saying to you is, even within the paddock right now, depending on what games people are playing on power unit and fuel, it\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, on top of that, I would add that you\u2019re going to see more than ever before, swings, circuit to circuit, based on what characteristics the power unit and the car teams have come up with.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even if today, Ferrari could win a race here, that doesn\u2019t mean they will in Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams F1 team principal James Vowles has stated Red Bull was playing games with its power unit during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":["post-497353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}