Mercedes happy with how W14 performed on the opening day in Bahrain; Lewis Hamilton finished sixth but appeared to have pace in locker; watch Day Two of three-day test live on Sky Sports from Friday at 6.50am
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff says his team’s 2023 car has “no bouncing” issues and their first impressions of the W14 at pre-season testing are “very different” to its predecessor.
Mercedes saw an eight-year streak of constructors’ titles end last year as their 2022 campaign was plagued by unforeseen bouncing problems with their W13, following the introduction of radical new design regulations.
After winning just one race and finishing third in the standings behind Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes’ hopes of returning to title contention took their first significant steps on Thursday as pre-season testing began in Bahrain.
George Russell finished fifth on the timesheet for Mercedes in the opening session, but speaking before Lewis Hamilton drove the car in the second session, Wolff appeared satisfied with his team’s start.
“George was generally happy with the car,” Wolff said. “It seems to be balanced in the right way.
“There’s no bouncing, which is good news, apart from the big bump at the end of the straight.
“[It’s] a good starting point – we’re gathering a lot of data because it’s important to correlate, obviously after last year, and trying different things – so a productive first morning.”
Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich brought out the first red flag of the 2023 F1 season
Asked how the experience compared to last year’s first runs, Wolff added: “We knew we were in trouble because the car was just bouncing around and we really weren’t able to drive it correctly, so that is very different.
“I think we have a solid base now to work from and try to optimise the car, which we haven’t done yet. It’s really just finding out how the aerodynamics could cause real performance hindrance like last year with the bouncing.”
Mercedes complete ‘ambitious’ programme | Hamilton: Difficult to know where we are
Hamilton finished sixth in the end on Day One although it appeared Mercedes had plenty more pace in the locker.
“We’ve had a solid start to testing,” said trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
“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 platform to work with than the W13.
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz’s notebook sees the reporter manipulate a block of gouda to demonstrate the floor changes in Formula 1 this season. Watch the full notebook tonight at 8:30pm on Sky F1.
“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 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 bit of learning we can into the programme. Hopefully the car continues to run like clockwork, and we can make the most of the remaining track time.”
Hamilton added after his afternoon: “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 days to come.”