Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda has denied the German manufacturer invested more money into their power unit development programme, hence the reason they’re ahead of the game.
His comments came after Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Mercedes “invested more and invested earlier” when compared to their own supplier, Renault.
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali hinted toward the same, adding: “Our resources are, so to speak, limited. [Mercedes] have solved all the problems that we have only found recently.”
Lauda however refutes the claim and simply believes they’ve “done a better job” than their rivals, although he says Ferrari aren’t far behind in performance and reliability.
“The only one that really struggles at the moment is Renault,” he told RTL. “They do not have the reliability that we have, simply because we have done a better job.
“But that has nothing to do with money,” he insisted.
“No,” he said when asked if they’d poured more money into the project than their rivals. “Our team is the same as it has been; the investments for all three engine manufacturers are the same.”
The Austrian fully expects Renault to recover from its position.
“We all know that in Formula 1, rapid development jumps are possible,” he added. “If Renault just has software problems, it could be really fast.”
