Mercedes could be about to reveal a new secret weapon on their W12 car at the Bahrain Grand Prix, at least according to Toto Wolff.
The reigning champions at least head into the 2021 season seemingly on the back foot after a tricky winter test that began with gearbox issues and ended with handling concerns.
Almost two weeks have passed since then however, and during media day on Thursday, the Mercedes drivers did seem more upbeat about their outlook for this weekend.
“As a team, we’ve tried to maximize the limited time we’ve had,” Valtteri Bottas said. “In testing, Day 1 was not ideal, but then Day’s 2 and 3 were much more productive.
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“The time between the test and the first race, that is about to happen this weekend, has been full gas for everyone, trying to find how we can make the package quicker,
“To make sure we take all the learnings we can for this weekend, and what is the direction to move forward and it’s such a long season ahead.”
The Finn even appeared to acknowledge Mercedes were ahead when asked about their competition.
“As a main threat, you just don’t know and it can obviously change throughout the year but, at least from testing, Red Bull seemed strong,” Bottas added. “I think it’s going to be closer than any year before, at least recently.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton did say the magic words “we are currently not the fastest” during his Bahrain press conference.
But before then the world champion was equally quite upbeat.
“I think we are in the best shape we can possibly be in, considering that we only had three days of testing,” he said.
“There’s been a huge amount of analysis, the engineers and the guys back at the factory have a huge amount of data. Naturally, every team has to do it.
“See the numbers, crunch time, and make improvements in that short period we’ve had. But I think we come here positive.”
Why is that? Well, that is potentially where this quote by Wolff might come in.
“You haven’t even seen what we’re going to put on the car yet,” the Austrian told France’s Canal+.
“Of course, there is room for innovation and that always made me happy. Every year we try to do something that is a little bit boxy. I’m not sure it makes a big difference in terms of the performance of the car. It’s beautiful if it works.”
Last year Mercedes stunned the paddock with their DAS system during testing, with that now banned have they found an alternative solution? Well, we’ll have to wait and see.