Formula 1 | Mercedes breathes a sigh of relief after free practice in Bahrain

We breathe a sigh of relief at home Mercedes after the first day of free practice in Bahrain. There was concern at Brackley about the lack of pace of the W15 on the flying lap, given that in last week's tests both Hamilton is Russell they encountered great difficulties in this regard. Yesterday things went differently, and the two Englishmen finished ahead of everyone at the end of PL2. Most likely the engine mode used by the Anglo/German team was more "aggressive" than the competition, but we can possibly evaluate this for the race pace simulation more than for the flying lap. In any case, the works have started much better than in the last two seasons, remembering how 12 months ago, at the opening of the world championship, Mercedes effectively decided to shelve the project that it had just brought to the track for the first race of 2023.

Mercedes, Shovlin: “A lot of work on the simulator before Bahrain”

“After the test we were very worried about our single lap pace – admits Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' head of track engineering. Both Lewis and George have been in the simulator this week before returning to Bahrain, and it seems we have improved given what happened today. Let's not get too excited, there is plenty of room for maneuver between the various engine modes and fuel loads, and this could mean that several cars will manage to find lap times in qualifying”.

“However, it is encouraging to see the picture we had improved after last week's tests. The data on the long runs also comforts us: Verstappen is in front, comfortably, as we saw already a few days ago, but behind him there will be a close battle for the two remaining places on the podium. We know there is a lot to do in terms of balance, we are still at the beginning with the W15 and we are learning how to get the best time in every single lap, it is already something very different compared to the last two years we have been here" .