Renault surprised by Ferrari's engine this season

Ferrari clearly possess the fastest engine in Formula One this season and this has surprised Nick Chester.

Renault technical director Nick Chester has admitted he is surprised by Ferrari's engine gains in 2018.

Mercedes have dominated power-wise for years up until this season and a couple of weeks ago, at Hockenheim, Toto Wolff estimated that Ferrari had half a second on his Mercedes team on the straights.

Ferrari's most recent engine update was available for Haas and Sauber in Hungary.

Crash.net asked Chester whether he was surpsied by how fast Ferrari's engine has been this season.

"They definitely made a big step Canada-time. I'd say yeah, we are a bit surprised," Chester said.

"They've got a strong engine anyway, but it's really quite strong now. The performance is right up there."

Earlier this year, one area of development was their blown rear wing but Chester doesn't think that Ferrari's recent gains have anything to do with upgrades in that area.

"Not that we're aware of. But it's always hard to know what another team is doing," Chester revealed.

"It just seems to be more power unit output. Their straight line speeds are very strong while running a sensible rear wing on the car. So they do seem to just have good power."