George Russell believes this weekend's opening round of racing in Bahrain will offer a glimpse into F1's pecking order but not the full picture for the entire 2023 season.
Pre-season testing last week at Sakhir provided limited information in terms of establishing a hierarchy, as is typically the case. And only a proper race weekend will deliver some clarification on where everyone stands.
"I think the fact is, we’ll find out this weekend where we fall out," said Russell on Thursday in Bahrain.
"I think testing is obviously a good indication for all of us but the fact is, until we get to qualifying, and we get to the race, we’ll have no idea.
"And I think some teams were surprising, how their performance was. I think some teams were very fast on a single lap; some teams look faster in the long run."
While everyone will be able to extract some hard numbers from this weekend's curtain raiser, Russell insists teams won't leave Bahrain with a snapshot of how the season is likely to pan out.
"I think it’s important to remember we all try and design a car that’s fastest across the 23-race season and Bahrain is definitely a bit of an outlier.
"So, I don’t think the picture of this weekend will be the full picture for the whole season."
One certainty expressed by Russell upon the conclusion of pre-testing is that Ferrari and Mercedes will be hard-pressed to challenge Red Bull Racing on race day while Aston Martin has now emerged as a potential podium contender.
"I went back to the UK [after testing], I was on the simulator and the learnings, the findings we found I think is going to put us in better stead for this weekend," said Russell.
"I think it’s definitely fair to say Red Bull are in a bit of a league of their own this weekend here in Bahrain.
"But I think it would probably be a nice fight for second place, probably between Ferrari and Aston Martin."
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