Toto Wolff provided a suitable, though unappetizing, analogy for Mercedes pre-test problems, as he said Bahrain sessions were crucial to highlighting problems with the new W12 car – and gave the team a chance to fix them before the season itself. In progress.
Problems with Valtteri Bottas’ gearbox and the W12 Finn’s accusation of “moody and unforgiving” were followed by a spin for Lewis Hamilton on day two that brought red flags, and another spin at the end of the third day. It was far from the smooth sailing we expected from the dominant force of the turbo-hybrid era – but team leader Wolff said he would be concerned, regardless of Mercedes’ mixed display in the test.
READ MORE: ‘We are not fast enough’ – Hamilton admits that Mercedes has ‘a lot of work ahead of them’ before the first race
“I always worry, sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes for the wrong reasons, but the pre-season tests are always exciting because you always find hair in the soup, things that are not good and we had a lot of difficulties in the first days”, he said.
Defending champion Hamilton and track engineering director Andrew Shovlin also warned that Mercedes had stopped working after the last three days of testing – and Bottas hinted that he preferred Mercedes shakedown his car before of the test to signal any reliability issues – but Wolff said the team did not become complacent, nor did he regret giving up on a shakedown.
“It is not a matter of complacency,” continued Wolff. “There is a reason why there are not many teams winning world championships or winning consecutive championships. It is an organization that always needs to be energized and motivated, and this is not trivial.
“Shakedown, if done in the right conditions, allows us to understand a little more, but our failures in the early days are not limited to doing or not doing a shakedown,” he added.
READ MORE: Bottas says the 2021 title victory is still on the cards, despite the “more challenging” preseason with Mercedes
With two weeks left until the first race of the season, Wolff explained the next steps for the Silver Arrows to ensure that they start the season with the front foot against a resurgent Red Bull.
“In the task list, we are going to analyze the data,” he said. “Try to understand where we performed well and where we didn’t, where we had a good correlation with our simulations and the tunnel and where not, and generally speaking, it’s like sleeping through the night with an idea. The next day you wake up smarter. “
Given the remarkable sequence of seven consecutive Silver Arrows pairs in the world championship over the past seven years, it may be unwise to completely discard them after this test, but we will only have a real picture of where they are in the first race of the season – the Grand Prix of Bahrain in late March.