Toto Wolff has revealed Mercedes nonetheless doesn’t know if it has shed its Method 1 automotive’s tendency to carry out a lot better in chilly situations 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 have been notably decrease, whereas its automotive final season couldn’t be coaxed into making its tyres work when situations have been hotter.
Addressing this efficiency inconsistency has been certainly one of Mercedes’ key goals within the low season.
However the uncommon chilly and moist situations impacting this week’s pre-season operating within the desert have made it more durable for the group to evaluate if it has been profitable.
When requested by Motorsport.com to elucidate what it had found on this matter on the take a look at the place temperatures haven’t risen a lot above 15C, Wolff initially joked: “Effectively, I am a bit apprehensive in the mean time as a result of that ought to be situations the place we ought to be two seconds faster than all people else!
“[That] was the one spotlight final yr when it comes to 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 situations or not.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photos
“We have had fun about it, whether or not we misplaced a few of that USP. We will see. I do not know.”
Given the delicate instruments out there to F1 groups of their simulators, Mercedes will be capable to right a lot of the information it has gathered to date in Bahrain and apply it to its calculations for the warmer occasions to come back.
George Russell even mentioned, “you have additionally bought to attempt to suppose what it may have been if the temperature was 20 levels hotter, if the wind was 180 levels completely different” concerning the situations on the opening day in Bahrain – the place sturdy wind was the primary problem for groups.
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However the simulators can not replicate random gusts of wind that awkwardly influence dealing with for the drivers, that are combining with the decrease temperatures this week and making Mercedes’ job more durable.
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 group can’t be certain if that’s an indication it may persistently obtain one of the best outcomes that it was lacking final yr.
Images from the Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Day 2
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Alex Kalinauckas
Method 1
Mercedes
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