Lewis Hamilton and Antonelli alert Stella: ‘Ferrari, Mercedes top of the list’

While cautious to go all-in on testing performance, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that Mercedes and Ferrari are the fastest teams.

The spotlight has been placed on Red Bull in Bahrain, with McLaren’s reigning World Champion Lando Norris talking up Red Bull’s engine, while Mercedes’ George Russell has declared Red Bull the team to beat. But, while considering it one of the top teams, Stella overlooked Red Bull when identifying the initial pacesetters to his mind.

Andrea Stella: ‘Ferrari and Mercedes top of the list’

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Piecing together the pecking order based on testing times can be a tricky business, and the pacesetters tag keeps getting lobbed around the paddock in Bahrain.

McLaren looks to be in a very strong place from a reliability standpoint. Oscar Piastri completed a staggering 161 laps on the third and final day in Bahrain, a new record tally.

“Before we look at the pecking order, I have to say that this test so far has been extremely positive in terms of the mileage that we have been able to achieve. Reliability. Functionality,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and others.

“We have gone through all the list of tests that we were yet to complete in order to sign off the car, which is such a completely new project.

“And I think we see with all teams, that at times, these cars required to take half a day off, because, not only they are completely new, but certainly ours, but I’m sure it’s the same for everyone, especially the packaging has been particularly pushed from an engineering, from an innovation point of view, so they are also cars that take time to work on.

“So there’s a positive in that the work that we have been able to do so far… The first couple of days in Barcelona, definitely were quite a bit of hard work to get the project to get going. But after that, day three in Barcelona, and this first part of the Bahrain test, quite positive from a McLaren point of view.

“When it comes to looking at the pecking order, I think it’s always very difficult in testing. If we consider the power unit, the weight of the car themselves, they can move loads of lap time, so it’s difficult to compare.

“What I’ve seen so far is that definitely we can say that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, they seem to be very well equipped. They seem to be fast in both the exploitation of the first lap, and then in the race simulations.

“So I think in terms of the big names that we used to hear before, they seem to be there as well for this new era of Formula 1.”

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However, it is Ferrari and Mercedes which stands out for Stella “from a performance point of view, in particular.”

Kimi Antonelli topped a Mercedes one-two on day three in Bahrain, while Lewis Hamilton completed 150 laps before his Ferrari ran out of fuel, causing him to park the SF-26 coming out of Turn 4.

It was the long run performance of both cars which alerted Stella.

“In terms of race pace, I can confirm that the race pace of Ferrari looks pretty competitive in the simulation that Hamilton did today,” said Stella.

“And then there was at the same time, one from Antonelli and one from Oscar. I think Antonelli and Hamilton were quicker than us today in the race simulation, when you look at the times.

“I would say that yesterday, Charles’s one was quite competitive, and at the same level as today’s simulations.

“At the same time, I just invite everyone to just be careful looking too much into what we see in testing.

“However, early indications from a competitiveness point of view, I think definitely put Ferrari and Mercedes at the top of the list in terms of those that seem to be ready from a performance point of view, in particular.

“I can’t comment on reliability. This one, we will see.”

The second Bahrain test takes place between 18-20 February, before the Australian Grand Prix begins with free practice on 6 March.

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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