George Russell sees McLaren and Ferrari as teams to beat after first impressions from testing. Russell: Mercedes are behind McLaren and Ferrari.

New Mercedes driver George Russell believes that Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren are for the moment the clear teams to beat based on the first impressions from the testing sessions which takes place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Despite the fact that this first shakedown run in Spain is definitely not the most relevant indication of the true potential of each team, especially if we consider the big regulation changes for the 2022 Formula 1 season, there can be no denying McLaren and Ferrari have impressed in the first two days of testing.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo temporarily took over in the McLaren MCL36 yesterday, by taking the fastest lap in the first part of the setting the pace in the day, but on top of the lap times, McLaren and Ferrari both have been impressive with their reliability and consistency.

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McLaren and Ferrari were aware that this year’s new rules are a golden chance to get back on top after several difficult seasons for both teams. Despite the fact that Ferrari and McLaren were involved in a close battle for third place in the 2021 Formula 1 standings, both of them mainly focused on attempting to catch Mercedes and Red Bull this year.

George Russell, who has completed his first runs in the new Mercedes W13 at the Circuit de Catalunya, feels that Ferrari and McLaren are the real deal this F1 championship: “Some teams are looking fast, a red team and an orange team in particular.” – he said, in an interview on Thursday – “Look, very very competitive, so let’s see what tomorrow brings and what we can do between this test and Bahrain.” – the British driver added.

Asked where he thinks the ‘silver team’, AKA Mercedes, sit compared to their rivals, George Russell continued: “Certainly not ahead, pretty sure of that. They seem to have things well under control and they are on top of everything and looking very strong – low fuel, high fuel and with tyre management. We all know we are on different programmes, but we definitely know from the average of all of the different runs we are behind them at the moment. So let’s wait and see, the championship isn’t won in Barcelona winter testing, but it has certainly been an intriguing two days.” – he explained.