Everybody and their next door neighbour are hailing the resurrection of Scuderia Ferrari. However, not everyone is too thrilled, one of them being Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. In fact, team boss Christian Horner insists that Ferrari is now the benchmark in F1’s engine department. Also, Red Bull still argue that Ferrari are doing something under the red hood.

Ferrari’s wins at Spa and Monza was a testament to their much-improved SF90 engine. However, Sebastian Vettel’s scintillating performance in Singapore highlighted the massive step forward taken by the Ferrari’s aerodynamic department.

Horner does not believe that Scuderia uncovered a “silver bullet” in engine development. Instead, he suspects that the squad’s power surge is the culmitation of several key factors.

Speaking to Channel 4 he said, “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.”

Since the hybrid era in F1 began in 2014, Mercedes was the benchmark of power, efficiency and engine reliability. However, Ferrari’s engineering prowess this season has seemingly allowed them to catch up to their rival and maybe leapfrog them. For once, Mercedes now knows what it feels like to play second fiddle on the engine front, and Red Bull are glad.

“It’s extremely impressive, they are the benchmark in the engine department in Formula 1 at the moment,” Horner continued.

“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.”