Lewis Hamilton has named Red B✅ull, McLaren and Alpine as the three teams that have impressed him the most throughout Form🎃ula 1 pre-season testing.

The seven-time world champion believes that thre🌃e of Mercedes’ rivals have been particularly impressive with regards to the pace they have demonstrated throughout the first two-and-a-half days of testing in Bahrain.

Red Bull has enjoyed a strong t🌠est so far, with Sergio Perez setting the fastest lap time of testing on Sunday morning, while McLaren has also hit the top of the timeshꦏeets with Daniel Ricciardo heading two of the five sessions so far.

Meanwhile, Alpine - who will field returning two-time world champion Fernando Alonso this year - has logged an impressive tally of laps and shown an encouraging turn of pace with its eye-catching A𝓡521.

Speaking on Sunday afternoon ahead of 🐈his final outing in Mercedes’ W12 challeng🍨er before new season, Hamilton said he was excited to see the “quite impressive” pace shown by his rivals.

“Without doubt it is quite impressive to see the speed of sไome of the other teams,” said Hamilton.

“Red Bull are looking particularly strong, and it’s great to see McLar𝐆en also looking strong, also R✅enault [Alpine]. I’m excited as that means more fun.”

Mercedes has endured a 💎troubled pre-season test with a number ♉of setbacks costing the team valuable mileage but Hamilton has insisted he is not panicking just yet.

“I don’t waste time worrying, that deters you from finding the solutions,” he said. “So we’re just working hard and focussing on getting through ♊the shor𓆉t amount of testing we have and trying to be as efficient as we can.

“I think it’s better when it doesn’t go smoothly. It’s better ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚthat it doesn’t go smooth now and goes smooth once we get into the racing scene. This is the perfect time for us to find the issues and have the problems, so I welcome that.

“I think everyone’s just keeping their heads down, no-one’s particularly faze✅d by it. We’re a multi-championship-winning team and we know how to pull together and keep our head down and focus on our job.”