George Russell conveyed concern about Mercedes’ performance on the first day of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain.
The Brit and the German marque went into this week as tentative title favourites, after some solid and consistent showing at ‘Shakedown Week’ in Barcelona a fortnight ago.
Its beleaguered and maligned power unit was also a reason for this, as the speculated power advantage it was giving was ensuring top billing as expecant champions-elect.
But on the opening day at the Bahrain International Circuit, not all seems quite as well for the Silver Arrows.
Russell’s morning running saw him clock a best of 1:36.108, 1.4s slower than the fastest time of the day, set by the Mercedes-powered McLaren of Lando Norris.
It left a bit of head-scratching for the Brackley-based squad, with Russell explaining that trialling different set-ups with the W17, plus a contrast in track temperature – a world away from the coolness of Barcelona – were both contributing factors to its apparent downwards trajectory in performance.
“We’ve had a difficult first day here in Bahrain,” he said.
“We had a solid three days on track in Barcelona, but we haven’t hit the ground running here in the Middle East.
“We were experimenting with the overall balance of the car this morning, but it didn’t feel as responsive as it did in Spain.
“That is partly to do with the higher track temperatures but there’s work for us to do to get the W17 into a happier place.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli took the reigns in the afternoon, and ended the final classification 11th, around 1.5s off Russell’s personal best time.
READ MORE – RESULTS: Lando Norris tops first day of F1 Bahrain pre-season test
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