"Everything I'm hearing points to this being a legit filming day"

Mercedes had a winter test full of problems last weekend. Given their speed in previous years that shouldn't be a problem and because Mercedes have a reputation for hiding performance from other teams, it was viewed with some suspicion.

Mercedes were the only team that had a filming day scheduled at the Bahrain circuit. This was completed on Tuesday and would perhaps give them the opportunity to test their true speed out of sight of the cameras.

Will Buxton, the host of F1TV, makes Twitter the rumours very quickly. "Everything I'm hearing points to this being a legit filming day rather than a shakedown for anything substantial. In short, it's not all part of some devious masterplan as a few rival teams had feared."

Buxton bases this on information that Mercedes would be using the 'outer loop' of the circuit. This layout of the track is shorter and thus the drivers pass the cameras more often. Also, some film cars have been spotted on the circuit. So a serious test at high speed would be out of the question.