Team New Zealand's boat was described as "scary" by the vanquished British team earlier this week.
But Ineos Team UK's famous boss Sir Ben Ainslie is still refusing to predict a result when the Peter Burling-skippered Te Rehutai defends the cup against Luna Rossa next week.
In a substantial interview with yachtracinglife, Ainslie and Ineos CEO Grant Simmer were clearly in awe of the Kiwi boat.
Simmer said: "The Italians sailed extremely well in the (Prada Cup) final and their boat is going well through a range of conditions.
"They are very good in light air yet were also fine against us in that 15 knot range.
"But on the other hand, when we go and watch the Kiwis sail they can turn on some really impressive performances.
"What we've seen of them, their performance is pretty scary. If we ended up racing as the challenger, we'd have been quite intimidated by some of the performances we've seen.
"Have the Italians bridged the gap? Hard to say. They've certainly got a lot better and are racing very well."
Burling and co. would be helped by the way Ineos tested them in pre-starts during the December warm-up. And Anslie even claimed that as a member of the challenger fleet, it had been a "mistake" awakening TNZ to the extent of their starting issues.
"Watching them, they have developed a lot," he said.
"They can only practice against the chase boat but they've done it to good effect.
"They are a smart group. It's similar to Bermuda where they turned up quite late and didn't have the training of the other teams but worked it out pretty quick.
"In this case they haven't got much time but they are very talented sailors who can deal with it."
While Luna Rossa's Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni had the match racing pedigree against the "drag" racing background of 49er stars Burling and Blair Tuke, Ainslie said the Kiwi team would develop a strategy to compensate.
"The America's Cup has a history of politics and so on behind the scenes.
"At the end of the day, we'd rather stay out of it. It's right that Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand are on their own from here on. May the best team win."