George Russell begins 'sandbagging' already at Barcelona test
George Russell remains cautious about the current order in Formula 1 despite Mercedes topping the timesheets throughout the week.
"I think on the power unit side there's some impressive things from some of our competitors and that's quite surprising to be honest."- George Russell
Mercedes completed its final day of pre-season testing in Barcelona on Thursday. Reportedly, George Russell once again set the quickest time of day, with an unofficial 1:16.928.
Speaking to F1.com, the British driver explained Mercedes had a problem-free three days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
He said: "We had lots of mileage on the car, which was the main focus of the test. The car is feeling nice to drive, no major issues, no porpoising in, which is pretty good news for all of us. It'll save us a few years on the back."
Up next for the teams is the Bahrain test. Looking ahead, Russell expects the order to still change moving forward.
He continued: "The car so far has been working well, but it's not about how well it works, it's about how quick it goes around the track and we don't really have an indication of that at the moment.
"We're sort of in a reasonably good place but I'm sure things are going to change a lot between now and the next Bahrain test, and then I'm sure people can be bringing upgrades to the car so still very very much early days."
Russell once again praises rival power units
After Monday, Russell once again praised Mercedes' rival power unit manufacturers.
He concluded: "No, I think on the power unit side there's some impressive things from some of our competitors and that's quite surprising to be honest.
"Well done to them, but [we're] three days into a 24-race season, so you don't want to judge too much into.
"But I think a lot of people anticipated the new power unit suppliers to be sort of struggling and whatnot and they've sort of had a good test as well. That's good for them but for us, time will tell."
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