Wolff admits Ferrari 'really fast'

Mar.3 - Toto Wolff says it is too soon to say Mercedes is still ahead of the field in 2017.

After the first of just two pre-season tests, the conventional wisdom is that Mercedes leads, Ferrari is close behind, and Red Bull is the third force.

But Mercedes team boss Wolff said: "Since we have these new rules, the teams are just trying to get a lot of mileage to know their cars.

"At Red Bull, we probably haven't seen the car that will be in Melbourne. But Ferrari is really fast," he admitted to Osterreich newspaper.

McLaren chief Eric Boullier admits that a pecking order is not possible to assess after four days of running, but he said Ferrari's pace has been "surprising".

"We did not expect to see them on the pace with the Mercedes. Red Bull seems a little behind, but we do not have all of the info to judge," he is quoted by France's Auto Hebdo.

"We may know a little more next week, but we really have to wait until Australia."

Boullier may be surprised with what he saw in Barcelona, but Red Bull's Max Verstappen seemed calm.

"Actually, nothing surprised me here," he is quoted by Het Laatste Nieuws. "And I think everything is still within reach for us."

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Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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