Toto Wolff has revealed Mercedes nonetheless doesn’t know if it has shed its System 1 automobile’s tendency to carry out a lot better in chilly circumstances as a result of uncommon climate in Bahrain pre-season testing.
Three of the final 4 wins for the Silver Arrows squad in 2024 got here within the Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Las Vegas races the place temperatures had been notably decrease, whereas its automobile final season couldn’t be coaxed into making its tyres work when circumstances had been hotter.
Addressing this efficiency inconsistency has been one in every of Mercedes’ key goals within the low season.
However the uncommon chilly and moist circumstances impacting this week’s pre-season working within the desert have made it tougher for the staff to evaluate if it has been profitable.
When requested by Motorsport.com to clarify what it had found on this matter on the check the place temperatures haven’t risen a lot above 15C, Wolff initially joked: “Properly, I am a bit anxious for the time being as a result of that needs to be circumstances the place we needs to be two seconds faster than everyone else!
“[That] was the one spotlight final yr by way of efficiency in Las Vegas and we’re not [that far ahead]. So, both we have remedied the issue and we’re extra balanced via all of the local weather circumstances or not.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
“We have had amusing about it, whether or not we misplaced a few of that USP. We will see. I do not know.”
Given the subtle instruments accessible to F1 groups of their simulators, Mercedes will be capable of appropriate a lot of the info it has gathered up to now in Bahrain and apply it to its calculations for the warmer occasions to return.
George Russell even mentioned, “you have additionally obtained to try to suppose what it may have been if the temperature was 20 levels hotter, if the wind was 180 levels totally different” relating to the circumstances on the opening day in Bahrain – the place robust wind was the primary problem for groups.
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However the simulators can’t replicate random gusts of wind that awkwardly affect dealing with for the drivers, that are combining with the decrease temperatures this week and making Mercedes’ job tougher.
With Russell ending second on the opening day, that represents Mercedes’ finest first day in Bahrain pre-season testing of the present guidelines period. However the staff can’t be positive if that’s an indication it could possibly persistently obtain the very best outcomes that it was lacking final yr.
Images from the Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Day 2
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Alex Kalinauckas
System 1
Mercedes
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