Mercedes Technical Director Andrew Shovlin believes the team’s W14 machine “was in a much better place” on the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell got off to an encouraging start on Thursday’s 2023 test with a car that didn’t appear to suffer from porpoises like its cursed predecessor.
But the week took a wrong turn on day two as the Brackley team struggled with balance throughout the day, in both hot daytime and cooler evening conditions.
The team admitted they were puzzled by its loss of power and were conducting an investigation into Friday night to get to grips with the W14’s handling issues and subsequent loss of power as it finished the day two seconds behind.
Technical Director Shovlin confirmed that the team managed to find a setup solution that keeps the car in a much better place.
“Quite a lot of work was done overnight to find some refinements to the car specification and regain our direction on setup,” he said.
“We seem to have made progress; both drivers felt the car was in a much better position in all conditions today [Saturday] and the balance is closer to what they need on a single lap and a long run.
“It’s clear that we still have to work on the pace of the car, but [Saturday] has given us a much more coherent picture of where to focus our efforts.
“We will use the time before next weekend to go through the collected data and get a little more lap time.”
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell believe they made progress with Mercedes’ W14
Photo by: Mark Sutton
Russell, who completed 83 laps in the morning session, felt the W14 was “in a much better window” in the hot conditions that had proved so difficult on Friday.
“We had a much more positive day today, we took a step forward and made progress on the issues we faced yesterday,” he said.
“I think we improved the car over the course of testing and got the W14 in a much better window today.
“There is still a lot to do but we are in better shape for next week as there is more to come.”
Hamilton took over for the afternoon, finishing second in his fastest of 63 laps on Pirelli’s softest C5 compound, three tenths off Red Bull pacesetter Sergio Perez on the slower C4s.
The seven-time world champion admitted Mercedes “isn’t quite where we want to be” but praised the team’s progress and work ethic.
“There have been many discoveries and the whole team has approached it with the same mentality, working hard, not complacency and staying focused,” he said.
“We’re not quite where we want to be yet, but it’s a good starting point. We don’t know where we will be next week but we will stay positive and keep doing our best.”
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