The Mercedes team struggled to find its rhythm during the second pre-season test in Bahrain, as the porpoising issue affecting part of the grid prevented it from getting more performance out of its improvements.
In the first qualifying of the year at Sakhir, Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, more than six tenths behind Charles Leclerc, who took pole, and behind the two Ferraris and the two Red Bulls. His team-mate in the German team, George Russell, will start ninth after having problems warming up his tires in Q3.
Immediately after the session, the seven-time champion said he was happy to qualify fifth, given how much Mercedes had been suffering.
The Briton later explained that his team was working hard to try to get the most out of the car, but acknowledged that limitations stemming from the porpoising problem meant that no amount of set-up adjustment could remedy things.
“There’s been a lot of work and talk going on until very late, working to try and get as much out of it as possible, bearing in mind that we still have those fundamental issues,” Hamilton said.
“No set-up change is going to fix them any time soon. We weren’t expecting to be fifth so I’m happy to be there. The drivers at the front are much quicker, six tenths is a long time.”
“But yeah, I know there is potential, and I think we just have to work very, very quickly and be precise over these next couple of weeks to try and close that gap as soon as we can.”
Hamilton explained that the porpoising that Mercedes was experiencing with the car meant that it did not have the downforce it needed, preventing the team from contending with the Red Bulls and Ferraris ahead.
“They have their cars in a much better position, and they are extracting, maybe not all the downforce, I don’t know, but presumably they are extracting a lot more than us,” said the Englishman.
“Driving quality is something that needs to be improved with our car, not only with this rebound, but also in many other places.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged that the team realized the seriousness of the problem “too late”, during the second test in Bahrain, where he was “really surprised” by the problems he had, but said he had faith in that the direction of the design concept taken was correct.
The Austrian added that the result was “not unexpected” and that “it could be much worse” given the increased performance of teams such as Haas and Alfa Romeo.
“Third on the road, that’s where we are, now we’re going to cement that tomorrow,” Wolff said.
“I think we are going to lose time with the Ferraris and the Red Bulls in the race, those are at least our expectations, so we are going to take the car to a suitable place.”
Hamilton agreed that Mercedes could not realistically expect to contend with the Ferrari and Red Bull cars on Sunday in Bahrain: “We might have a slightly different strategy on the tire situation, who knows if that may come into play.” game tomorrow.”
“If our pace turns out to be a little bit better than we anticipated, which, considering [practices] yesterday, won’t necessarily be the case, but every day is a little bit different, then maybe we can stay close to the drivers. that they’re ahead just for a while, and give them a little trouble.”
“But we will not be faster than any of those ahead of us,” he said.
