Mercedes wants to be a leading player in Bahrain

In 2010, the Mercedes AMG team – known as Mercedes GP at the time – made its F1 debut in Bahrain. Two years later, it has just secured its first Formula 1 victory thanks to Nico Rosberg – who also clinched his first F1 win.

Even though Bahrain comes right after China, Ross Brawn, the team director, is glad to have taken some time to reflect on the last Grand Prix: «After the fantastic weekend we had in Shanghai, it was nice to take a few days to reflect on our achievement with the first victory of a Mercedes car since 1955, and of course, Nico’s first victory in Formula 1.»

Michael Schumacher believes that this first victory will be a breath of fresh air for all the team personnel, but the goal is to not rest on their laurels and to continue on this path: « After a race like China, it gives a big boost to the whole team, and we are clearly going to give our best to repeat this performance in the upcoming races. However, the season has shown so far that you can be sure of nothing, and having three winners in three races shows how close the teams are this year. »

Brawn knows that the team was not as competitive at the start of the season and he praised the improvements made by the engineers to the F1 W03 since Australia: «The team has worked very hard to overcome the tire issues we had in the first two races, and it’s clear that achieving optimal performance from the Pirelli tires is key to our performance and our ability to fight at the front.

Schumacher hopes that this good form can continue on the Sakhir circuit this weekend: But once again, it’s good to see that we are increasingly able to fight at the front, and we will try to maintain a good pace from China to Bahrain for the next race this weekend.

Nico Rosberg knows the Bahrain track well, and it has worked out quite well for him in the past: I have good memories of the Bahrain Circuit. I won the Bahrain-Macau Cup in Formula 3, the GP2 championship, and I finished 7th in my F1 debut with the fastest lap of the race. I love this circuit.

The young German believes that the characteristics of the Sakhir circuit should suit his Mercedes, which could allow him to race at the front once again: « It’s a circuit with low downforce, heavy braking, and also some fast corners. The layout suits our car, but it’s a real challenge for us to properly manage the performance of our tires and find the right settings, as the temperatures will be much higher than in China.»

Track conditions will be very different from China to Bahrain, and Ross Brawn is aware of it. He knows that everyone will have to work hard to properly set up the two F1 W03: « The temperatures and track conditions in Bahrain will be very different from those in Shanghai, so we will have to work very hard to extract the maximum performance from the F1 W03 in order to have another good weekend. »