Max Verstappen has jokingly called the new Mercedes 'ugly'

Mercedes have earned themselves plenty of headlines at Bahrain testing this week, with them unveiling a sidepod-less car at the Sakhir circuit, generating a great deal of chatter up and down the paddock.

Rumours were rife earlier this week that the Silver Arrows were going to bring a radical interpretation of the new Formula 1 rules to the final period of testing before the first Grand Prix next weekend, and those rumours were proven accurate on Thursday.

Indeed, the new-look W13 had massively tightly packed sidepods, to the extent they’re basically non-existent, in a car design we’ve not seen in the sport.

It’s certainly innovative and creative, and potentially game-changing, and it had tongues wagging in every garage in the pitlane.

Max Verstappen was asked for his opinion on the new car, too, and he replied with a short, two-word verdict in a joking matter:

“Ugly huh,” Nos quote him as saying.

Verstappen, of course, enjoyed a thrilling rivalry last season with Lewis Hamilton, as the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers went wheel-to-wheel in nearly every race of the championship, taking the fight to the very final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

Eventually, it was Verstappen who took the title in now-infamous circumstances and, of course, many believe Mercedes are going to be using events at the Yas Marina circuit as fuel to really kickstart F1’s new era in dominant style, as they did in 2014.

Verstappen will naturally be intrigued by the design ethos that Mercedes have opted to follow, then, with it drastically different to his Red Bull car and the rest of the field in truth, and he’ll just hope it’s not a masterstroke from the Silver Arrows.

If it is, his title defence could become particularly hard but, as expected for Max, he’s