F1: Verstappen not worried about radical Mercedes

Max Verstappen says he is “not concerned” by Mercedes’ new-look car and new sidepod design which has raised eyebrows in Bahrain.

“We can only focus on ourselves,” stated the reigning F1 world champion in the lunchtime press conference in Bahrain. “I said this so many times last year, and that’s what we’ve got to do again this year.

“Even if the car looks different, there are so many unknown things still that we need to learn about. So I’m not worried at all.”

George Russell, who is driving the Mercedes this afternoon, said of the car: “It looks interesting… but it’s not about how it looks, it’s about how fast it goes.

“It obviously caught a few people’s eye this morning and from my side I’m proud to be a part of a team that’s pushing innovation, all this hard work, blood, sweat and tears going into something pretty spectacular being pulled off is pretty incredible. But we need to see the times.”

Lewis Hamilton debriefs Toto Wolff and George Russell after his Thursday morning testing. They look very happy.

Russell also said that he was still impressed by Ferrari.

“I don’t think it’s advantage anyone at the moment,” added the Englishman. “As Max said earlier they have a few things coming, and at the moment Ferrari look globally the strongest in every low fuel run, consecutive laps, they look very, very solid.

“And if you look at their sidepods, they’re quite drastically different to what we have at Mercedes, and what Max has at Red Bull. Time will tell next weekend, it truly is unknown.”