Carlos Sainz says that Mercedes "hyping up" its rivals while downplaying its own expectations is just part of the Brackley squad's "typical" pre-season game.
As F1 team's preparations draw to an end in Bahrain, the fields pecking order seems as murky as ever based on the raw numbers.
In Barcelona, pace setter Lewis Hamilton downplayed Mercedes performances, insisting it had some "obstacles" to overcome, while the Briton claimed to be impressed by the pace of Ferrari's new F1-75.
In Bahrain, the Scuderia upheld its seemingly strong performance level while Hamilton admitted to struggling to master Mercedes' "bumping and bouncing" wild W13.
Sainz is convinced that the German outfit is masking its true pace, alluding to GPS data that suggest that Mercedes is deliberately running a conservative power unit mode to keep its potential hidden.
"We can see in GPS what they are doing," said Sainz. "I don’t want to say any more.
"I think it is typical Mercedes," he added. "Hyping up the others, and then we come to the first race and they blow the competition away, which is typical.
"If it was the first year they did that, then maybe I would believe them. But they have done it for five or six years now and they keep crushing us in the first race.
"So, as you can imagine, I don’t believe much."
Hamilton laughed off Sainz's comments and made clear that Mercedes were not indulging in any mind games with its rivals.
"We would be really, really, really good if we were having all these oversteer moments and having this tacky driving, just to hide our car [pace]. It's not the case," Hamilton said.
"We definitely have things that we're trying to get through. I think, as I said, others are struggling less but who knows? Maybe when we get to next week, we'll have a better understanding."
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