Mercedes don't know who their direct competitors are 'Apart from Red Bull'

From the F1 test days, it seems to have emerged that Red Bull Racing with Max Verstappen is still currently the fastest in the field. Who will follow next in the rank order is still unclear. James Allison, Mercedes' technical director, expects a competitive battle between the rest of the field.

Red Bull has been completely dominating Formula 1 for two years. After the test days in Bahrain, this dominance looks set to continue for some time. Despite Ferrari setting the fastest time, Red Bull are faster on the longrun. This creates a big advantage, mainly in the race.

A three-way battle for spot two

So the Austrian racing stable seems to be the big favourite, but which teams are the fastest after that? This still seems unclear, even for Mercedes' technical director James Allison. ''I think it's very difficult to...Red Bull are in front, if you look at their race run from today, it's quite fierce. But there's a few people in the chasing pack who are reasonably strong. Ferrari look okay. I think we look okay. Fernando just did a pretty fair run today. So I'd say that would be my guess of the three chasers. But precisely in what order, I'm not sure."

Mercedes vs Ferrari

Mercedes' biggest rival at the moment seems to be Ferrari. "I think maybe we looked a tiny bit better in the long-run but a bit behind the Ferrari in the single lap stuff. So I think a lot will depend on who has a good week between now and then all right." How the ranking order will clearly unfold remains to be seen until the first race.