Norris not dismissing 'incredible' Mercedes at first race

McLaren's Lando Norris says Mercedes' pace at the end of F1's first leg of pre-season testing could imply an even more "incredible" performance by the Brackley squad in the opening race in Bahrain.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell topped the timesheets in Barcelona, with a 0.30s margin over Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

But with teams not divulging their fuel loads or engine modes, reading anything into the times and predicting a pecking order is a futile exercise.

However, Norris applied his own logic regarding Mercedes' performance to paint a picture of how things could pan out in Bahrain later this month.

"Mercedes never look that good in testing, only when they get to the first race," reasoned the McLaren charger. "If they're good in testing, that means they're probably going to be incredible by the first race!

"I think everyone's worked on their own programmes and so on. Of course, everyone has different fuel loads and power modes and whatever.

"We can see a picture. I think we are in a decent position. But then Ferrari have looked very good since day one.

"They've been at the top of the timesheets every single time and [their] long-run pace looks good. So Ferrari look very, very strong.

"Mercedes and Red Bull are right there with us and, if anything, I'd say a little bit ahead of the moment."

• Read also: McLaren surprised to escape 'porpoising' issues in Spain

At the end of testing last week, Norris insisted McLaren was "in a good but not an amazing place", with the papaya squad forced to deal with "a lot of issues".

"I feel like we have a lot of work to do as a team if you want to be fighting with them [Ferrari and Mercedes], but that's expected, I would say," he added.

"I think we can feel good about ourselves with the car we brought to the track so far this season.

"I think we just [need to] be clear, there are so many things for us to improve on to be at the level there."

F1 teams will resume their preliminary running next week in Bahrain with the final three days of pre-season testing.

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