F1 verbals continue as Carlos Sainz says it's 'typical' Mercedes are playing down chances

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz says that it is typical that Mercedes and George Russell are playing down their chances ahead of next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, with day two of testing at the same Sakhir circuit venue now in the can.

Just the one day of Formula 1 testing remains to play out on Saturday before we go racing proper next weekend in Bahrain, and it is still hard to call the pecking order.

Indeed, we won’t really know full performance of each team until next Saturday come qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, but it’s still a fun game trying to guess who might be on top.

Many believe Ferrari could be the team to beat next weekend, of course, but Sainz says the repeated playing down of Mercedes’ performance by George Russell and the Silver Arrows team might be wide of where they actually are themselves in terms of the field.

Speaking during day two of the Bahrain test, the Spaniard said:

“I think it is typical Mercedes and typical George; hype up the others and come to the first race and blow the competition away.”

There has been A LOT of drivers playing down their chances in a bid to try and divert expectations onto one another but, come next Saturday, someone is going to have to come out on top and be the best team to kick off the season.

It would certainly be fascinating if Ferrari are suddenly the team to beat, just as unsurprising as it would be if Mercedes emerged top of the timesheets after a couple of weeks filled with smoke and mirrors.

Indeed, the new Merc certainly looks different to most of its competitors with them revealing a dramatic approach to their sidepods – to the extent where they don’t really have any bar the inlet for air intake to cool the W13’s inner workings.

That could prove to be a