The final day of pre-season testing has arrived and there is an element of intrigue surrounding Mercedes after an interesting admission from Toto Wolff.
It was a challenging second day of testing for Mercedes, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton down in 13th and 15th spots respectively.
A hydraulic failure saw Russell forced to come to a stop on Mercedes’ 109th lap, failing to return and later conceding the team may struggle to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari for victory in the first race of the season.
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F1 TESTING TALKING PTS: McLaren’s grim admission; Max fires early warning
‘A lot to learn’ Oscar Piastri | 01:03
Mercedes boss Wolff though told Sky Sports that they were “hiding” their real pace from rivals.
“It’s very difficult to judge at [this] stage,” he said when asked if the gap between his team and Red Bull and Ferrari was bigger than before.
“Everybody’s playing around with fuel loads and it’s a little bit [of] hiding on engine modes, so you can’t really judge – we’re still hiding a little bit.”
It came after Max Verstappen fired an early warning shot as the reigning world champion, who was fastest on Thursday, impressed with 1min 31.650sec off 47 laps.
“Again, the car was responding well to everything we did,” Verstappen said.
“We learnt a lot for next weekend and of course for future races as well. I’m very pleased with the testing period, every time I jumped in the car I felt comfortable and could push instantly.”
Meanwhile, Australian rookie Oscar Piastri will feature in the early session for McLaren, with CEO Zak Brown already conceding some “goals for development” had not been hit.
It is a disappointing setback for McLaren but as for Piastri, the Australian is still getting used to the reality of being an F1 driver and enjoying the “privileges” that come with it.
‘A lot to learn’ Oscar Piastri | 01:03
“It’s definitely a step up,” Piastri said.
“I think coming from the junior categories, firstly the size of the team is a lot bigger by a magnitude of 10 or more. That side of things takes getting used to, just trying to remember hundreds and hundreds of people.
“But also just being one of two drivers in a team where you make your own car – you don’t get given the car by a manufacturer of a series – and that’s I guess a nice privilege to have and nice to be able to have some input into that.
“It’s nice to be calling myself a Formula 1 driver.”
DAY 3 TESTING DRIVER SCHEDULE
Saturday session 1: Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), George Russell (Mercedes), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri), Alex Albon (Williams)
Saturday session 2: Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lando Norris (McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), Alex Albon (Williams)
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