Max Verstappen made light of it by joking with George Russell about Red Bull's expected race pace advantage, but the Briton responded with a joke about “underpromising, overdelivering”.
Verstappen took the season-opening pole position in Bahrain, but his 1:29.179 by no means destroyed the field or morale.
Charles Leclerc was his closest rival in second place, 0.228 seconds behind, but even Lewis Hamilton in ninth place was only 0.5 seconds slower than the Red Bull driver.
How big will Red Bull's race advantage be in Bahrain?
It might have been pole position for Verstappen, but it was a challenge for the chasing pack, given that Red Bull's rivals abandoned pre-season testing midway through fearing a 0.4s gap or even more to the nearest car. The results were encouraging.
But that was one lap pace, and Red Bull's race advantage was expected to be even greater.
Russell told media outlets including PlanetF1.com that Mercedes expects the RB20 to beat the W15 by half a second in race trim.
“I think so [qualifying] It was better than I expected,” said the British rider, who is third on the grid behind Sakhir. “I think we all knew it was going to be a very close race between Ferrari, Aston, McLaren and the Czech Republic.
“And I think the difference in qualifying was probably a little closer to the max than we all expected.
“I think race pace is important. We're expecting maybe a half-second difference. That's what we thought after the test. I think we'll find out tomorrow.”
Looking at Verstappen, he continued: “Don't you agree?”
Verstappen looked incredulous and replied with a laugh: “Half a second!”
“Is it too small?'' Russell said.
“No, no,” replied the Dutchman. “I think it's too big. But if I say that now, and tomorrow it's better, I'll be able to say, 'Oh, I can't believe it, the car is unbelievable.'
Russell: “That’s right. We underpromise and overdeliver!”
Recommended by PlanetF1.com
2024 Bahrain GP Qualifying Winners and Losers
F1 2024: Qualifying results between teammates
Russell hopes the improved quality doesn't hurt the W15's race pace
However, Russell hopes it won't negatively impact the W15's race pace, as it showed good pace in qualifying and the W15's one-lap pace was better than during testing.
After testing, he believes this was the second fastest car on the grid behind Red Bull.
“I think what we found in testing was that our qualifying pace was a little bit offset and our race pace was probably second best to Max,” he said.
“Now that my qualifying pace has improved, I hope that doesn't hinder my race pace.
“It's unusually cold here in Bahrain right now. I think it'll be around 16 degrees by the time we go to the race tomorrow, but it's usually in the 30s or mid-30s here in Bahrain.
“There's going to be a lot of unexpected things. Soft tires perform well on this circuit, and some people might run two sets of soft tires, two sets of hard tires, and some medium tires in the race.
“But this is the first race of the season and I think we’re all excited to get going.”
Read next: Red Bull: 'I would have been surprised if Mercedes didn't call Max Verstappen'
