Mercedes take encouragement from “much calmer” W14 F1 car but too early to know competitiveness
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff confirmed his team were in a much happier place with their modified W14 challenger after experiencing “no bܫouncing” during the opening day of pre-season testing at Sakhir.
The Silver Arrows saw their eight-year streak of constructors’ titles come to an end last year after their W13 was plagued by unexpected and excessive 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:porpoising.
- What happened on the opening day of F1 2023 pre-season testing
- F1 pre-season testing: Verstappen heads&🔯nbsp;Fernando Alonso on opening day
- 168澳洲♌幸运5官方ꦅ开奖结果历史:F1 pre-season testing: Day 1 Final Lap Times
But twelve months on from a troubled test in Bahrain, Mercedes enjoyed faultless running as 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton and168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: George Russell racked up 152 laps between them.
“We’ve had a solid start to testing,” said Mercedes 👍trackside engineering 𒁃director Andrew Shovlin.
“The car has run faultlessly from staಞrt to finish and that has allowed us to complete an ambitious programme for day one.
"It always takes a few days to understand a 💜new car, but we've got a reasonable handle on where we want to improve the balance.
“It was encouraging that it's a much calmer, more stable pl𒆙atform to work with than the W13.
“The performance picture is always blurred after the first day so it's impossible to say where we stand, but we've already identified♎ several key areas where we 🎶can find some performance.
“We'll work on the assumption that we're playing catch up and need to pull out all the stops to find performance ahead of t🦹he first race h🌳ere in one week's time.
“The next two days are going to be🏅 just as packed as today as we're squeezing every bi🍸t of learning we can into the programme.
“Ho🌠pefully the car continuesꦚ to run like clockwork, and we can make the most of the remaining track time.”
After finishing sixth and trailing Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen by over six-tenths, Hamilton admitted it is too early to know where Mercedes ꦛstand in the 2023 pecking order.
"We got through our programme and have gathered lots of data,” the sev😼en-tꩵime world champion said.
“We also had good reliaꦰbility which contributed to our strong mileage total; that is down to the amazing work done back at Brackley and Brixwort🌃h.
“We've got to keep pushing, focus on ourselves, and stay focused. It's difficult to know where we are in the order, but we'll get a better feeling in the d💧ays to come.”
Russell, who ended up ninth-quickest after taking part in the morning session, echoed his teammate’s assessment, adding: “It was great to be back out in the car and get a first real experien🗹ce of the W14.
“It i🐎s still too earl🐟y to say where our performance levels are relative to the competition, but we had a clean day and learned a lot.
“💃There are plenty of positives to take away and we can focus on maximising the potential of the car in the 💜coming days.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mah꧙bx.com 𝓰around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
