Mercedes again singles out Red Bull Racing as favourite: ''Never looked weak''

Mercedes won the first Grand Prix of 2021 and after the past few years this should not be a surprise. Still, Red Bull Racing seemed to have the strongest car in Bahrain, and Mercedes is more than happy to shift the favourites role to the Austrians.

Mercedes relinquishes favourites role

Red Bull Racing prevailed with Max Verstappen in Bahrain. The Dutchman topped the timesheet during the three free practice sessions and also set the fastest time in qualifying. The pole did not yield victory though, as that went to Lewis Hamilton. Still Andrew Shovlin thinks that Red Bull is the favourite for the upcoming race in Imola.

''I don't think we are fast enough in the high speed sections, and there are plenty of those in Imola and Portimao. That's one part where Red Bull has an advantage over us now. Bahrain is quite a stand-alone circuit. It's very heavy on the tyres and very winding. That's very contradictory to the rest of the season,'' Shovlin said according to Motorsport.com.

Red Bull show no weakness

''We certainly hope this wasn't one of our better circuits, because we had a very tough time here. We got the car in a good 'window' at the end, but that was very hard work'', the Mercedes engineer stressed how much effort it took for Mercedes to beat Red Bull Racing.

According to Shovlin it is therefore better to put your money on Verstappen for the coming race than on Hamilton. ''If you look at Red Bull during the test and free practice, their car just worked really well. They haven't looked weak for a moment. Hopefully we'll find circuits that suit us more,'' Shovlin concluded.