“Two or three” more races before witnessing the return of Mercedes
Despite a third and a fourth place at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Mercedes is still trailing behind its rivals Ferrari and Red Bull at the beginning of this season and will have to find a solution quickly.
The Mercedes cars are struggling at the beginning of the season. Although Lewis Hamilton managed to secure a podium in Bahrain thanks to the retirement of both Red Bulls, the W13s are not yet on par with the Ferraris.
James Allison, technical director of Mercedes, explained where the problem came from, revealing that they were a bit overwhelmed by the extent of the porpoising, which was quite extreme. Similar to Charles Leclerc’s car during the Barcelona testing, the Mercedes cars are still being shaken on track, and the German team is still searching for a solution.
“In the coming weeks, we will have to find what improvements we can make to control these rebounds without compromising the car’s underlying performance,” continued Allison. “It’s an important question for the outcome of our championship.”
In Bahrain, Hamilton’s delay behind Leclerc was nearly seven tenths in qualifying. As for George Russell, the gap was slightly larger, with almost a 1.7-second difference. However, these gaps are not as terrible as Mercedes feared.
(I) I think that in terms of performance, the progress we have made between the winter tests and the first race may not be visible to the fans and may not be reassuring either, but here, within the team, it is reassuring. We plan to solve these issues as soon as possible, hopefully within two to three races, so that we can compete at the front and continue our championship dream,” Allison concluded.
