George Russell has uncovered Mercedes was a lot more worried about the rate of Haas and Alfa Romeo than of Ferrari and Purple Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Russell completed fourth driving crew-mate Lewis Hamilton in the F1 time-opener with crew principal Toto Wolff still left boasting the Silver Arrows experienced “punched earlier mentioned its bodyweight”.

Mercedes was the 3rd fastest crew all weekend but profited from a double retirement late on for rivals Purple Bull, though in the early levels Russell was nearer to Kevin Magnussen’s Haas than to the leading 4 in advance.

“In the long run, this is a activity all about success,” explained Russell.

“It won’t issue if you have the swiftest motor vehicle or the slowest motor vehicle, it is about who finishes up standing on that leading move of the podium.

“If you instructed us we would appear absent from this weekend with a P3 and a P4, we unquestionably would have taken it.

“We were not awfully that a lot more quickly than the midfield and that was likely a lot more of our worry than the men in advance. We realized we would be a very long way driving Purple Bull and Ferrari but we similarly observed how speedy Haas had been, how speedy Alfa Romeo had been.

“McLaren failed to have details. They experienced a genuinely hard weekend below but in Barcelona they appeared powerful so we have received a whole lot of perform to do.”