With Toro Rosso being the only team on the grid running a 2015 Ferrari spec engine, Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe has revealed that according to their data the Honda and Renault engines are already ahead of them.

Despite the leap Toro Rosso took from Renault to Ferrari, Lowe said that their GPS readings say that all the 2016 power units are ahead of the 2015 Ferrari and will make an even bigger jump when they receive their upgrades.

Although the stats say that Toro Rosso are behind the Renault and Honda-powered cars, the Red Bull Junior team are ahead of Renault, Honda and Mercedes powered engines on the Constructors Championship standings after two races.

"You may not know this, but the engine with the least power on the grid is actually the Ferrari in the Toro Rosso," Lowe told ESPN.

"The Renault and the Honda [power units] are not so far behind the Ferrari and Mercedes, so there is not a lot of difference now between the power units.

"Even the worst engines in Formula 1, and people complain like hell about them, are still fantastically efficient by any absolute standard.

"They just happen to be one or two per cent worse than the best engines."