Mercedes driver George Russell has twice singled out Ferrari as being the early favourites after a𝄹 strong pair of pre-season tests in Barcelona and Bahrain, with the Italian outfi𓆏t racking up considerable mileage and regularly featuring towards the top of the time sheets. 

Russell claimed on Thursday that the Ferrari is “globally the strongest” car based on pre-season testing, while at the end of day two in Bahrain, teammate Lewis Hamilton added that Ferrari would 𝄹“probably be getting a 1-2” if the first race was this weekend. 

But Sainz was quick to dismiss Russel💖l’s comments ✱and remains wary about Mercedes’ true performance. 

“I think it’s typical Mercedes, typical George,” said Sainz on Friday. “Just hype up the others and then come to the first race and blow the competi🌌tion aw✨ay, which is typical.

“If it had would be the first year they’ve done it then I would maybe believe them, but they’ve done it for five six yeဣars now and they keep [performing] in the first race.

“So,♐ as you can imagine I don’t think m♏uch [of the comments] and yes, already in GPS [data] we can also see what they are doing.” 

Asked about Sainz’s comments, Hamilton🥃 insisted Mercedes’ troubles have been r𒊎eal and rejected the theory that his team is purposely hiding its true performance. 

“We’ll be really, really, really✤ good if we were having all these oversteer moments and tacky driving just to hide our cards,” he said. 

“That’s not the case. We have things we’re trying to get through. Others are struggling les꧙s.

“Who knows, maybe when we’ll get to next week w🐲e’ll have a better unde🧜rstanding.”

The final day of pre-season testing is taking place at the Bahrain International Circuit on Saturday, before the 2022 season begins next weekend at Sakhir.🧸