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 bouncing” during the opening day of pre-season test𝐆ing 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.
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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 director Anꦉdrew Shovlin.&𒈔nbsp;
“The car has run faultlessly from start 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 p🌞latform 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 alrea🐻dy 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 fiꦆnd performance ahead of the first race here in one week's time.
“The next two days are going to be just as packed as today as we're squeezing every b𒐪it of learning we can into the programme.
“Hopef♊ully the car continues 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 a🍰d♓mitted it is too early to know where Mercedes stand in the 2023 pecking order.
"We got through our programme and have gathered lots of data,” the seven-time world chamܫpion said.
“We also had good reliability which contribu♑ted to our strong mileage total; that is down to the amazing work done back at Brackley and Brixworth.
“We've got to keep pushing, focus on ou♔rselves, and stay focused. It's difficult to know where we are in the order, but we'll get a better feeling in the days to co💮me.”
Russell, who ended up ninth-quickest after taking part in the morning session, echoed his teammate’s assessment𝓰, adding🐎: “It was great to be back out in the car and get a first real experience of the W14.
“It is still too early to say where our performance levels are relative to the competition, but 🅷we had a clean day and learned a lot.
“Th🐓ere 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 ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on the action from thℱe ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sp🤪ort.
