Mercedes Reveals Setback During Testing

Reigning world champions, Mercedes AMG Petronas, have confirmed that they have installed a new aerodynamic package. According to them, they have made significant progress, inspite of a few niggling issues here and there.

On Wednesday, drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas racked up the miles, clocking 176 laps between them. This was a far cry from Tuesday’s run when an oil leak put a damper to Bottas’ stint.

As a result of the failure, Mercedes were unable to carry out a proper analysis on the package. Their initial checks decreed that their race simulation pace was fairly decent. However, there was a problem with graining on the tyres, which necessitated further investigations.

Technical director, James Allison gave the rundown while speaking to the media. He said, “The race run in the afternoon, although quite considerably quicker than the last race simulation we made, was marred by front graining – something which we think, looking up and down the pit lane, could be a feature of the year.”

He continued, “We need to make progress on graining resistance in the next couple of days, in order to make sure we have a good way of handling it by the time the racing season begins.”

Even the drivers gave their verdict on their runs and the issues faced by them.

Defending champion, Hamilton said, “We got a lot of laps today which is a good thing, but we’ve come across a few little hurdles,”

“So we’re just working our way through them, trying to be as diligent as possible trying to understand the causes – which is exactly what testing is for.”

He continued, “Everyone is working flat-out and I’m sure we will get there. You need days like this to be able to bring light to the things that we need to work on.”

Meanwhile, teammate Bottas also gave his views on his run.

“It was a positive day, we did 74 laps this morning, focusing on set-up work and making some good progress.”

“There’s a lot of data for us to go through tonight to further improve our set-up and make sure we come up with the optimal programme for tomorrow.”

His parting words were, “We learned a lot today and we will make sure to learn a lot again tomorrow.”