Mercedes: Red Bull pace not limited by engine power

In the aftermath of the British Grand Prix, in which Red Bull ran Mercedes close in the wet conditions, Lowe asserted the Austrian team was not being hampered by the performance of its Renault power unit.

"Silverstone is a circuit which is undoubtedly a real test of a car, power and aerodynamics," Lowe told Motorsport.com.

"It’s interesting that Red Bull are constantly peddling a story about the low power they’ve got, but just to set the record straight at this event as they often do, they chose to run a higher level of wing than we did.

"Therefore they look like they have less power and they’re quicker in the corners, because that’s the choice they make.

"The reality is there’s not a huge difference between the engines these days, but there are still differences between the downforce you can run."

No explanation for variations in Mercedes gap

Meanwhile, Lowe said that it was night impossible to explain the ebb and flow of the performance gap between his pacesetting team and its main opposition from circuit to circuit.

“It’s one of those things that if you understood it fully you would rule the world,” he said. “It’s the same as people who say how easy it is to buy and sell shares, all in hindsight.

"I must admit, in all the time I’ve been in F1 I’ve never fully understood the vagaries of circuit specific performance. That’s something that we continually try to understand further. But we have seen some very interesting variations in the gaps.”