Mercedes not fighting for wins yet: Hamilton

SAKHIR (Bahrain) • Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes "still have a lot of work to do" ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as testing ended at the Sakhir circuit, with world champion Max Verstappen on top.

"I am sure everyone can figure that out, we are not the quickest at the moment. I think Ferrari look to be the quickest and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us or McLaren," the seven-time world champion said on Saturday.

Verstappen, who denied Hamilton the world title on the last lap of the last race in December, posted 1min 31.720sec to finish the final and third testing day atop the timesheets. Hamilton was a distant 17th, over four seconds adrift.

Mercedes unveiled a radical interpretation of the new technical regulations designed to promote closer racing with their "no sidepod" car, which they are counting on to power the Briton to a record eighth world championship.

But ahead of the first race this Sunday, the Silver Arrows "have considerable amount of pace to find".

"Obviously, it's a little bit too early to have that kind of thought, but at the moment, I don't think we'll be competing for wins," said Hamilton, 37.

With pre-season testing performances notoriously difficult to read, Mercedes' grid rivals will take his cautious prognosis with a pinch of salt, if history is anything to go by. Last year, Red Bull ruled pre-season tests in Barcelona only for Hamilton to emerge the winner in the Bahrain opener.

"People keep talking about whether we are talking ourselves down or not, but it's a bit different this year," he observed.

"Obviously next week, we'll get a much better showing of our pace but... I think people will be surprised, maybe?

"There is potential within our car to get us there, we've just got to learn how to extract it and fix some of the problems, which is what we are working on."

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly, who got a close-up view of Hamilton, said: "I could see Lewis was struggling as well, and I think they do have some work to be fighting right at the top."

Still, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, second best in pre-season testing, will not read too much into the timings. "Red Bull had quite a new package today, Mercedes had a complete new car and didn't really show their potential," the Monegasque said.

"And actually, everyone seems to be quite close at some point or another. It's very, very difficult to know how much they have in the margin... we have no idea how much they hide their games. So for now it's very, very difficult and that's why I think we need to really stay cautious. Because it's nice to be at the front but it doesn't mean anything for now."

Daniel Ricciardo missed the entire pre-season test for McLaren because of Covid-19, but the team said he would be released in time for the Bahrain GP.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE