Mercedes F1 driver George Russell has admitted that Ferrari and McLaren look very competitive after the first two days of winter testing in Barcelona and are faster.
George Russell believes that the Mercedes Formula 1 team is “certainly not ahead” of Ferrari and McLaren at the moment, who have admittedly been at the top of the table since the start of winter testing in Barcelona.
“Some of the teams, a red team and the orange team in particular, look very, very competitive, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings and what we can do here and in Bahrain,” Russell said on Thursday evening in Barcelona.
“We’re certainly not ahead of them, they seem to have things well under control. They’re on top of everyone and seem very solid with low and high fuel levels and with tyre management as well.”
“Who knows! We also know that we have different programs, but we also know if you look at the different runs, that we are behind them at the moment. We’ll wait and see, the championship isn’t won in pre-season testing in Barcelona, but it’s certainly been an intriguing couple of days at the moment.”
George Russell finished Thursday’s race in fourth place, nine-tenths of a second behind Leclerc. This Friday, the British driver is on track in the morning for the final day of testing in Spain, and will then give way to Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon.
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But probably ahead on outright pace in opening QLF when everything matters.
Mercedes does the same every single year.. trying to play the underdog and sandbagging. Only after the first race(s) we will be able to judge their real power.
https://twitter.com/thejudge13/status/1497158240001564673?t=bYG0MQUWW3Ad56FzzVt4og&s=19
Yes, the typical misleading words as in every year. Sandbagging is Merc’s established technique. Pity that even Russel is being drawn into their chicanery straightaway.
Yawn… The usual Toto Wolff underdog tactics. He would be happy if F1 was just a 300kph game of chess controlled by the pitwall. Bring back the real racers like Gilles Villeneuve (but without the blood).