F1 News
Mercedes looked at the data: 'On race pace we are not as fast as Red Bull'
- GPblog.com
In previous years Mercedes had the habit of taking it easy during the winter test. Teams like Ferrari seemed to have a good chance at the start of the season, but saw their Silver Arrows disappear into the horizon at the first race. Andrew Shovlin of Mercedes has his doubts if this will happen again this year.
Shovlin explained in Mercedes' press release that the last day of testing was a success in his eyes. They were able to drive a lot and the balance of the car had improved especially with large amounts of fuel. Although the car was more predictable, according to Shovlin it was also too slow.
"From the data we've collected over the last few days that on race pace, we're not as quick as Red Bull. The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn't gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today."
Mercedes was able to turn around backlogs in the past
"We've had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time," said Shovlin.