Mercedes reveal Bahrain test insight after successful Barcelona shakedown

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has explained the team's approach to the upcoming Bahrain pre-season test.

The Brackley-based squad enjoyed a highly positive Barcelona shakedown as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli clocked 502 laps between them throughout three days of running.

Such was the efficiency of the event, Shovlin previously noted that Mercedes had ticked all of its boxes across the first two days of on-track action.

Having given the W17 car its initial run at a Silverstone event prior to its appearance in Barcelona, Shovlin asserted both outings have proven successful for Mercedes.

“For every event, whether it was the shakedown in Silverstone or the first test, we have an idea of what objectives we want to achieve,” he said. 

“We've pretty much ticked all of those boxes for these two.”

Bahrain will host two tests next month, running from February 11 - 13, before the final pre-season outing on February 18 - 20.

Mercedes head to the Bahrain tests in strong shape as Shovlin outlined that the focus will shift more to extracting pace from the car.

“Bahrain, we're going to move more to set up exploration, trying to work out how you get the car in the right window,” he said.

“And while you can do setup here [in Barcelona], it's so cold, it's not really relevant to any race track. 

“Bahrain is going to be a much better place to check that the car runs well at temperature, both in terms of the chassis performance side but also just the systems running effectively.

“That final Bahrain [test] hopefully will be more just about the race preparation. 

“So preparing for qualifying, preparing for the race, and all the situations that that throws up.”