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Mercedes: "Explored the Car During Testing"

10:50, 11 Mar 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Even though he believes the two week of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya is extremely punishing for everyone takes part, Mercedes' technical chief James Allison thinks that his team have learned a lot from the experience, and should be satisfied with the worl that got done.

Accross the eight testing days, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas managed to log 1,040 laps in Spain, or 4,841 kilometres. 201 of those laps came on the final day of testing.

“Eight days of winter testing is a punishing schedule,” said Allison. “All of us out here at the track and those who have supported it back at the factories are feeling the cumulative loss of sleep."

“But I think we can look back on these two winter tests with some satisfaction, having designed, planned and then executed a very complex series of tests with some competence.”

“The loss of time caused by the inclement weather during the first test is something that Andrew Shovlin and his team were able to nimbly work around and come back with a good programme,” he continued. “We finish winter testing feeling like we’ve explored the car and the tyres."

“Both drivers seem to like the car, it responds well to set-up changes and has shown a good turn of speed. I say that with caution because even with all the mileage we’ve done it’s chastening to note that we have not yet come close to completing the full life cycle of core components such as the engine and the control electronics.”