Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has outlined that the team’s deficit to Red Bull Racing has been accentuated by the W12 suffering from engine derates in Bahrain.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped pre-season testing, all three practice sessions, and went on to beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position by almost four-tenths of a second.
It marked the first time in Formula 1’s turbo hybrid era that Mercedes has not taken pole position for the opening round of a season.
Much of the focus concerning Mercedes’ deficit so far in 2021 has been on the stability of the car at a venue that is regarded as rear-limited.
But Sakhir is also a power-sensitive circuit and Honda accelerated introduction of its proposed 2022 power unit in late 2020 when the decision was made to leave Formula 1 after 2021.
Wolff commented that Mercedes is “losing on the high-speed [corners]” with its W12 but also that “we are losing a little bit on the engine side in terms of derates.”
“We are not yet in a happy place with our energy recovery, but it is not single point where we could say this is a big gap.”
Wolff accepted that Mercedes “have to take it as sportsmen” with Honda “having done a really good job. They have delivered a power unit that is extremely competitive, look at where AlphaTauri is.
“I think Honda is a very proud company and I was convinced they would give all the power to have a great power unit in the final year as a works team.
“I think they left no stone unturned, no resource unutilised, to finish the job properly, so it is good motivation for us.
“There is just no other solution [for us] than to recover, I believe on the derates that you see it is something to get on top of, that is not easy, but we’ll get there.”
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