Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko believes that Mercedes is still the favorite despite not so good pre-season tests and believes that their actual performance was hidden by a much larger amount of fuel.

AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo drove the most laps in pre-season testing in Bahrain while current world champions Mercedes drove the fewest laps of all teams for the first time in the hybrid era.

Max Verstappen is happy with the pre-season tests, which he described as 'definitely the best' since he was in Formula 1, but he is also cautious and aware that the true balance of power between the teams will be known only in the first race of the season in two weeks.

Mercedes chief engineer for track operations Andrew Shovlin says data from pre-season testing shows they are not as fast as Red Bull at the moment, but that by the first race of the season they will do their best to find more speed.

Max Verstappen set the fastest lap in this year’s pre-season testing for Red Bull in the second half of the third day while one of the stars of the day is debutant Yuki Tsunoda who was the second fastest in AlphaTauri.

Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time on the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain which is also the fastest lap in this year’s testing and Pierre Gasly was the second fastest for AlphaTauri.

Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time for the second day in a row in the morning part of the second day of the test in Bahrain behind the wheel of a McLaren MCL35M and Fernando Alonso drove the first laps in the new Alpine A521 and set the second fastest time.

Max Verstappen is pleased with the first day of pre-season testing on which he set the fastest time and drove the most laps of all drivers, but he is aware that it is still too early to estimate speed in relation to their rivals.

Max Verstappen set the fastest time on the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain for Red Bull who is hoping to challenge Mercedes in the title fight while McLaren also had a very good day setting the second fastest time with Lando Norris.

Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest lap in the new McLaren MCL35M on the first part of the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain driving for his new team while Mercedes drove just six laps with Valtteri Bottas after they had to replace the gearbox on their F1 W12.