With 2023 Formula 1 pre-season testing having drawn to an in depth, all ten groups will now pour over mounds of information forward of the season’s first occasion, the Bahrain Grand Prix subsequent week.
For Mercedes, the three days of testing provided “progress,” however the staff concedes there may be nonetheless work to be carried out.
Perhaps the principle difficulty going through the Silver Arrows heading into the 2023 season was whether or not they had gotten the physics proper. Last season noticed Mercedes wrestle with aerodynamics, with drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton battling “porpoising” on the observe. While the staff finally solved these points, the solutions got here too late within the season for Mercedes to mount a critical problem within the Constructors’ Championship.
While the primary day of testing in Bahrain led the staff to consider these and different points had been actually within the rear-view mirror, that image has develop into considerably murkier over the previous few days. However, in line with Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin, they’re near the place they must be. “A fair bit of work took place overnight to find some refinements to the car specification and recover our direction on the setup. We do seem to have made progress; both drivers felt the car was in a much better place across the range of conditions today and the balance is closer to what they require on single lap and long run,” stated Shovlin in a press release to the media launched on Saturday.
He continued: “It’s clear that we still have work to do on car pace but today has given us a much more coherent picture of where we need to focus our efforts. We’ll be using the time ahead of next weekend to go through the data we’ve collected, and aim to extract a bit more lap time.”
Both drivers highlighted the progress the staff had revamped the previous few days. For Russell, whose testing session on Friday was reduce quick as a result of hydraulic difficulty suffered by the W14, there have been nonetheless constructive notes from the week. “We had a much more positive day today. We took a step forward and made progress with the issues we faced yesterday. I believe we have improved the car over the course of testing and got the W14 in a much better window today.”
Hamilton, who mentioned lingering balancing points previous to Saturday’s session — saying that “[s]ome of the balance limitations that we had last year are just present — struck a more positive note on Saturday. “It has been an interesting few days here in Bahrain,” stated the Mercedes driver. “There has been a lot of discovery and the whole team has approached it with the same mentality, working hard, not being complacent and staying focused. We’re not quite where we want to be but it’s a good platform to start from.”
Both drivers additionally mentioned the season-opening Grand Prix, slated for subsequent week, and admitted there may be some uncertainty about the place Mercedes will stack up when the lap occasions rely. “There is still plenty of work to do but we’re in better shape for next week with more to come,” stated Russell on Saturday.
“We don’t know where we will be next week, but we will stay positive and continue to push to the maximum,” added Hamilton.