F1

Mercedes is 'sandbagging', says Ferrari's Charles Leclerc

24 February 2019 - 00:00 By Reuters

Ferrari newcomer Charles Leclerc has played down talk of his Italian team being faster already than Formula One champions Mercedes and said he suspected their rivals were hiding their true pace.
Speaking after Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas told reporters on Thursday that Ferrari looked like they were a step ahead in pre-season testing, the Monegasque suggested appearances were deceptive.
"The performance has no sense for now," the 21-year-old said on the final day of the first test at the Circuit de Catalunya. "It remains testing and they are probably not pushing and we are not either.
"We don't know how much the others are 'sandbagging'," he said, referring to the pretence of being weaker than is actually the case. Bottas, teammate to five-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, had said Ferrari looked "very strong" after they lapped fastest on the first two days.
The sport's oldest and most successful team have also covered an impressive amount of mileage in their new SF90 car while Mercedes have been working through their programme without setting any truly eye-catching times.
"No matter which kind of fuel load or engine modes they are running, whatever you try to correct that for, in any case they are quick on short runs and long runs," said Bottas.
"I think we feel at this point they are maybe a bit ahead, but obviously it's impossible to make detailed calculations. It is very early days. With the new rules its going to be a big development race." Bottas said the cars would be very different by the time of the Melbourne race on March 17 and Mercedes had new parts coming before then.
The Finn warned, however, that even with the upgrades Mercedes still needed to make the car better and quicker, with work to do on the balance.
"It feels a little bit different (to last year), at least in these (winter) conditions," he said. "It seems to be again, with the tyres, quite a narrow window to get them to work.
"It seems like balance-wise a little on a knife edge at the moment. But there's nothing fundamentally wrong."..

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