Toto Wolff was pleased by the performance of the Mercedes team during free practice in Spain after both cars placed in the top three in FP2. The Spanish Grand Prix weekend marks a key event in the F1 development race, and the reigning Constructors' Champions appeared to make a step forward in practice. With the team spending the first five races of the season trailing Ferrari and Red Bull, the Mercedes W13 has proven a difficult car to extract pace from. The porpoising effect has been prevalent in this season's Mercedes, but their latest upgrades appear to have reduced this problem. Speaking after Friday's running, Wolff heaped praise on the team for their development efforts. "Both companies have worked so hard," Mercedes boss Wolff told Sky Sports F1 . "Brixworth has really gained land against the other power unit manufacturers and it's fantastic to see that – I'm really proud. "On the chassis side, we are getting there, we have had a second solid Friday like we had in Miami. "We have to see when the grid keeps improving tomorrow whether we are able to keep up that kind of performance and at least be in the mix or solidly in the top three."
Mercedes still facing high-speed corner porpoising
Mercedes appeared to be less susceptible to the porpoising effect at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the car remaining stable on the straights. However, both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton cautioned that the car was still bouncing in some of the corners. When asked about the trade-off between porpoising on the straights and porpoising in the corners, Wolff confirmed that the problem still occurred in the high-speed turns. "It's better, but still not at a point where the drivers feel comfortable in the high-speed [corners]," added Wolff. "Turn 3 and Turn 9, we're losing a lot of time. We just need to find out what we're going to do about that tomorrow."
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