George Russell says Mercedes to do qualifying runs on Thursday in Barcelona

However, that is about to change according to the Briton who, alongside his teammate Kimi Antonelli, managed a staggering 183 laps on Wednesday, Day 3 of the Barcelona test.

Speaking on Wednesday after the conclusion of the running, Russell told F1 TV: "We got a huge amount of laps in today between Kimi and I [183], which was great.

"The track was two degrees this morning, so I think maybe one of the coldest track temperatures I’ve ever driven in, but everything went really smoothly, and we’re just getting through our test programme.

"We’re focused a lot on long runs and just proving out the power unit. We’ll probably look at more qualifying-style runs tomorrow [Thursday]," he revealed.

Bookmakers including the likes of premier vegas have slated Russell as preseason favourite for the 2025 Formula 1 title.

As it seems, the weather will be much better and less cold on Thursday, which will benefit some qualifying simulations.

Russell believes that will be a totally different challenge in how to run and drive the car.

He explained: "That’s going to be very different, getting to use that 350 kilowatts over the course of a full lap, full beans. That’s going to have a different reaction on the car compared to the long runs.

"So we’ll probably have a first look at that [on Thursday]," he concluded.

Mercedes have accumulated the biggest number of laps so far in Barcelona, 334 in particular, proving that they have a reliable package out of the box in the form of the W17 and its brand new power unit.

It reminds us of their advantage back in 2014 at the start of the first V6 turbo-hybrid era when they drove circles around their rivals.

However, it doesn't seem the others are so bad, and Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have shown their power units are solid so far, which cannot be said of Audi, while Honda is yet to run with Aston Martin.