McLaren boss singles out the two early frontrunners as Red Bull left out

10:01, 14 Feb

byTobia Elia

Andrea Stella did not name Red Bull among the teams he believes are currently leading the pecking order at the end of Bahrain testing.

“What I've seen so far is that definitely we can say that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, they seem to be very well equipped”

- Andrea Stella

Speaking to GPblog and other media in Sakhir, the McLaren team principal believes Ferrari and Mercedes are currently very well placed, both over a single lap and in race simulations, while acknowledging that drawing firm conclusions from testing remains a relative exercise.

“When it comes to looking at the packing order, as you say, I think it's always very difficult in testing. If we consider the power unit, the weight of the car, themselves, they can move loads of lap time, so it's difficult to compare.

“What I've seen so far is that definitely we can say that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, they seem to be very well equipped. They seem to be fast in both the exploitation of the first lap and then in the race simulations. So I think in terms of the big names that we used to hear before, they seem to be there as well for this new era of Formula 1.”

Photo: Race Pictures

McLaren largely stayed out of the spotlight for most of the test, with Oscar Piastri completing the second-highest lap count, once again underlining the strong reliability of the Mercedes power unit, while Lando Norris had set the fastest time on Day 1.

Russell warns of ‘pretty scary’ Red Bull edge over the rest of the field

While Stella made no reference to Red Bull, George Russell struck a very different tone, aligning himself with Toto Wolff’s assessment of the RB22 and underlining just how strong Red Bull look at this point.

Speaking to GPblog and other media, the British driver made it clear he sees Red Bull as the outright benchmark right now, pointing to eye-catching gaps separating them from the rest of the grid.

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