No worries! The problems which were coming across the new Mercedes W14 have been fixed.
The three days Bahrain F1 pre-season tests once again reflected a lot of mistakes Mercedes made in their brand-new creation this year. The W14 is, of course, nothing similar to the W13, it has no porpoising issues at all. But it still had other issues, like the balancing out, pace off, hydraulic, etc. These issues are apparently preventing Lewis Hamilton and George Russell from giving their best performance in the test sessions, which were all dominated by the Red Bull stars.
The first day of the three days of testing went great for the Silver Arrows as it figured out that the sensational porpoising issues following the entire 2022 season are over now. But on the second day, Russell rendered a red flag after 26 laps due to a hydraulic pump issue. Moreover, both drivers also complained about the balancing problem hobbling from the W14.
However, the positive thing you can extract from the Bahrain pre-season test for Mercedes is that they succeeded in overcoming the balancing issue overnight. As reckoned by George Russell, the solutions for fixing the problems of W14 were “pretty easy.” He thinks the test and race worked really well in analyzing what happens through the test. Indeed there were a few things wrong with the car that we didn’t quite expect. But George Russell claims that the team “have been able to resolve those issues pretty easily. It was just working in slightly the wrong window.”
George Russell Explains How The Mercedes W14 Will Catch Up The Lost Pace In Bahrain Grand Prix
The main reason why Mercedes was low last Friday as compared to Red Bull and Ferrari was their choice of rear wings. The Brackley-based team tried to run the W14 on a double spoon sub-optimal rear wing. As the data coming with it is not matching the standards, Mercedes will not take even double thought in changing it. However, fans need not worry that Mercedes will once again be slow. Speaking with Motorsport.com, George Russell has explained that Mercedes is running a different rear wing for the Bahrain Grand Prix than the one used in Testing, just for some correlation work.
The 24-year-old Mercedes driver also explains that the rear wins were not optimal even for Bahrain. Therefore, positive signs are definitely there, but sitting here, Russell is not going to say, “We [Mercedes] are going to find that lap time deficit to Red Bull.”
Russell further added, “I find it more comfortable sitting here today than I was probably on Friday night.” The young Briton also intended to clear that if the racing pace is the thin lacking, then it’s no problem for him. “Race pace is something I can improve.” And the most important thing adding shine to Russell’s statement is that he was able to improve the pace last year much better than the seven-time world champion.