Mercedes are investigating more than just the hydraulic failure which cost them an hour and a half of running during the second day of testing in Bahrain.
The team also admitted it experienced difficulty getting its car balanced at the Bahrain International Circuit which will hold next week’s season-opening race.“We’ve not had a strong second day,” trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admitted. “Stopping on track with a reliability issue wasn’t great and we have struggled to get the car balanced well across the changing conditions.
“We’ve got some investigations going on to understand why this has been such a challenge today when yesterday it was fairly straightforward. That work will continue into the night and no doubt we’ll understand more come the morning.”
The team has one day of testing left to assess how well it understands its new car. “It will be interesting tomorrow to see if we can understand the drop in performance and mitigate the lost track time,” said Shovlin.
“The hot temperatures made it challenging with the tyres overheating, as we often see here in Bahrain. We got through our run plan though and it was good to get that mileage in.”
While Hamilton managed 72 laps, George Russell covered just 26 after the hydraulic failure which forced him to stop. However he expects to see progress on Saturday, when the pair will share the car again.
“Even though we didn’t complete our full programme, we uncovered some interesting things in the data throughout the day,” he said. “That is a positive and we will analyse these overnight with the aim of finding lap time.
“We haven’t unlocked everything yet in the W14 and everyone is working hard to do so and maximise our final day of testing tomorrow.”
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Boomerang
24th February 2023, 20:15
i can only say that Mike Elliott is a great aerodynamicist but under average technical director. Understanding by definition means that you know how some elements within the context interact and how they influence the very context they’re part of. There is great knowledge and experience within this team but reshuffling rules for the 2022. has thrown them out of rails. They’ll catch up eventually but that’s not the way to win the championship.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
25th February 2023, 1:12
I know it’s early days but Mercedes already seem to be well on the back foot whereas their main competitors are cruising.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th February 2023, 6:04
Even if Mercedes start the season on the back foot (which seems likely), hopefully, they stay close enough in points to use RBR’s wind tunnel time handicap for good when the effect truly shows further into the season.
Wayne
25th February 2023, 9:45
I rather they have all the issues during testing than when the races start. They can then at least know what their problems are and try to sort out
Renee (@renee)
25th February 2023, 12:16
I’d rather have a fast car with problems, than a slow car with problems. Problems can be ironed out or mitigated. Making a slow car fast, is much more difficult.
Considering how easily RB are cruising to top of the charts, with no problems to speak of, I’m afraid MB are in for another year of catching up. At least 0.5 down on RB, more likely 6 or 7 tenths.
As a Hamilton and MB fan, I really hope I’m wrong though.