Max Verstappen has dismissed suggestions that Red Bull is the team to beat heading to Formula 1’s opening round this weekend, believing Mercedes is trying to ramp up the pressure on its opponent.
Mercedes has won seven world titles in succession and last year claimed 15 pole positions and 13 victories from 17 races to comfortably emerge on top.
Red Bull topped pre-season testing in Bahrain courtesy of Verstappen while Mercedes encountered a handful of setbacks with its W12.
It prompted the reigning World Champions to assert its belief that Red Bull holds the stronger package and is ahead on performance, but Verstappen has played down the situation ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“For sure the test was a positive start for us and you can always be happy when you get that number of laps in and get a good understanding of the car but it doesn’t say anything about pure performance,” said Verstappen.
“I know people are excited and think we are just saying this, but Mercedes are still the favourites – how can they not be when they have won seven world championships in a row.
“I’m sure Mercedes also want people to think we are the favourites and put the pressure on us but we are just focused on ourselves.”
Verstappen outlined that he and Red Bull would be “stupid” to expect Mercedes not to be a formidable competitor.
“You can be sure that everyone in this team and at Honda is pushing to beat them and anyone else who may be quick this year,” he said.
“I see every season as a new opportunity to beat them, but we would be stupid to expect that fight to be easy and look at testing and think we are ahead.
“I personally can’t wait until we are all pushing in Q3, that is when you will see everyone at full power with low fuel and that is the time to see who developed performance wise and then in the race we will see who can keep that performance over a race distance.”
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