What is Mercedes holding back? 'That's why you can't compare with Red Bull'

After three days of winter testing it is time to make a provisional balance. The lap times themselves don't tell us much, but from the data we can see a lot. Mercedes has collected the least data of all teams, while it's competitor, Red Bull Racing, has collected more laps without any problems.

The fact that Red Bull went through the winter test so smoothly provides cautious signs of a good winter for Max Verstappen's team, and F1 journalist Edd Straw agrees. "Surely the most impressive car is Red Bull's. That's no surprise of course, but it's just amazing how good that car looks with Verstappen behind the wheel," explained Straw in his analysis at The Race.

No conclusions yet

"He manages to turn in with full commitment and maintains speed. Even more impressive is that he can get back on the power much sooner than the rest, without much wheelspin." Straw acknowledged that Red Bull had balance issues with the car last year, which made things very difficult for Red Bull and Verstappen at the time. This year however they seem to have made good steps.

That doesn't apply to Mercedes, Straw sees after the three days of testing: "It's not the Mercedes with a light car or where the driver pushes very hard, so you can't really compare it with Red Bull. But it's clear that it's not as good as the Red Bull," Straw concluded.