Rosberg: “Not yet 100% comfortable” with his Mercedes

At the top of the timesheet on the first day of testing, Nico Rosberg was able to complete, in eight hours on the Sakhir circuit, the equivalent of two Bahrain Grand Prix. 121 laps during which the Mercedes driver had ample opportunity to test a number of settings but also to focus on tire management.

Thus, the championship leader after three races explains to Crash.net: « The plan was to try to work the tires a little better. With Pirelli, it’s always a challenge, you never stop learning how to get the most out of them. » For these tests, Pirelli made the entire range of available tires available to the teams: super softs, softs, mediums, and hards.

But the work also focused on the car itself, with which Nico Rosberg wants to be as comfortable as possible: « Then, we did some stuff on braking — I’m not 100% happy with the car’s brakes yet — and then some overall setup work. I also made personal adjustments like on the electronics; it’s very powerful this year what you can do with electronics, so I just tried some things around that. »

He indicates that his work did not focus on what happened on Sunday during the race: « I worked on several things today. Not compared to [Lewis Hamilton] really, just things I didn’t feel 100% comfortable with yet. So, I focused a bit on that too, just to be able to extract a bit more from it. »

He can’t help but display his satisfaction and confidence in a car and a team he knows are currently dominant: The team did a phenomenal job all winter, really. Now, it’s great because I can say it, I no longer have to be cautious in hiding it; they’ve just done a spectacular job in every direction: reliability, car performance, engine, everything. Everything works in harmony, so it’s really excellent and it’s a pleasure to be part of this momentum we have right now. It’s awesome!

This Wednesday, it’s Lewis Hamilton on the track for Mercedes. This second day of testing can be followed live and in full on MotorsInside.