Lando Norris has downplayed suggestions McLaren is the team to beat ahead of the new Formula 1 season, saying rivals including Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes looked "extremely strong" in testing.
McLaren, who won the constructors' title last year, emerged from Bahrain testing in February as preseason favourites.
Norris' race pace on the second day of the test looked particularly impressive, suggesting he would have had a 17-second advantage over a race distance compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.
But Norris believes rival teams have intentionally built hype around the testing data to heap pressure on McLaren and make themselves look like the underdogs.
"I'm quite surprised so many people are short-sighted, especially people you wouldn't expect to be, making so many conclusions before we've even started the season," Norris said. "Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down. We just focus on ourselves.
"It's nice that so many people are thinking about us and talking about us, great publicity for us so I thank all of them. But it makes no difference. If I go out this weekend and do a bad job, who cares what people have said in the past? I don't believe it, I feel like we're in a similar playing field to the top other three teams. I still think it's us top four."
Norris downplayed the relevance of his race simulation in testing and claimed he'd seen data that told a very different story.
"There are many things that other people didn't see where other people looked extremely strong, including Red Bull, including Mercedes, including Ferrari," he added. "I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing -- you'd be surprised at how quick they're going to be this weekend.
"People can talk all they want. I think for us, we've kept to ourselves, we've kept focused. We want to be quick, we expect to be up there fighting, but I definitely don't think by the margin that everyone is saying."
