Mercedes not worried yet despite balance and reliability concerns

Mercedes are not quite at the point of worry despite reliability and balance concerns with their W12 car.

After just 48 laps on Day 1 of testing, the reigning champions recovered somewhat on Saturday with 116 tours of the Bahrain track and Valtteri Bottas fastest after a late soft tyre run.

Still, Mercedes have the least mileage of any team on the grid, and Lewis Hamilton admits not a whole lot has been learnt so far.

“Compared to the past it’s not been particularly useful,” he said of testing so far.

“I did 60 laps [58], something like that, so it’s not a lot compared to other test days we’ve had, but we’re trying to be as efficient as we can be.

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“We have less mileage than some of the others so far, like the Red Bull, but we’re just trying to stick to our program and manage the amount of laps we have.

“It’s day two of testing so we’re just focused on doing our job,” he insisted.

“We’re just focused on trying to understand the car. There’s no point getting worried just yet. Everyone is focusing on their programme and that’s what we are doing.”

What has also been apparent, however, is how the Mercedes hasn’t looked as planted through the corners, raising questions as to whether the ‘diva’ characteristic of some recent cars has returned.

“The wind did a 180 as the track is a lot different, so in some places, you can push where you couldn’t push yesterday, and it’s very gusty, as I found out into Turn 13,” Hamilton noted, referring to the spin which caused the only red flag of Saturday morning.

“The rear doesn’t feel particularly great with this new regulation change, and we’re trying to find the sweet spot.

“The track feels a bit better, so the balance was [also] perhaps. Slightly better but we’re still working through certain things.”

That point was also picked up on by teammate Bottas.

“For sure it’s windier than we’ve had normally at the race but one of the bigger issues with the car is the rear end, it’s quite snappy and unforgiving,” he explained.

“Topped up on fuel with the new tyres, they feel quite sensitive to the sliding so we’re trying to calm the car down a bit and that way get some more pace.”

All of this means Mercedes boss Toto Wolff for once might be taken seriously when he suggests his team are in a little trouble to start the new season.

“This year we’ve had a horrible start, as opposed to recent years,” he told Sky Italia. “We are not fast, we have reliability problems, but it’s a situation in which we have to prove our ability to react.

“There are many new things that do not work. The balance of the car is the biggest problem.”

Also in his mind is the unexpected gearbox problems that hurt Mercedes on Friday and then Aston Martin on Saturday.

“Yes, it scares me. We did not change the design of the gearbox and we saw two problems. All these things are an alarm not only because we risk not to finish the race but also for the costs,” Wolff added, noting the new budget cap for this year.

“We are not nervous, but we have to understand what went wrong.”

So far, all four Mercedes-powered teams are in positions 7-10 in the distance covered chart after two days.