While it was always obvious that Mercedes had been sandbagging to a certain extent in pre-season testing - doesn't it always - few really believe that Ferrari is as off the Silver Arrows pace as last weekend suggests.

From the opening session, both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc expressed concern with the balance and handling of their cars, neither feeling as confident in the SF90 as they did in Spain.

Toto Wolff has opined that set-up was the issue, and the Maranello outfit's technical boss, Mattia Binotto, tends to agree.

"Conditions are certainly different to Barcelona," said the Italian, "smooth to bumpy, quite a lot windier as well, different, higher temperature and weather conditions. There are certainly external factors that may have impacted or influence the performance of our car.

"But as Toto said, apparently he's well-aware, we didn't find the right window, if we can call it a window, or the right balance of the car," he admitted. "It's something we need to try to understand.

"One thing we are certain of this day and this weekend is it's not the real potential of our car," he insisted. "We are pretty sure the potential is bigger and we have not been able to exploit it all through the weekend.

"You're always hoping to address and improve the situation through the weekend when you've got some issues with balance and the set-up," he said. "It didn't happen. We need to bring all the data back home and try to analyse it.

"That has to remain an exception all through the season," he added. "But I think it will be a good lesson learned. If we may identify where the issue was, we can be back even more stronger."