Toto Wolff has explained the handling issues that have hampered Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes' progress on the second day of F1 pre-season testing. Like most of the field, Mercedes appear to have minimal reliability concerns at the Bahrain International Circuit, and have been able to register a high lap count so far in the three-day test. Mercedes had commented yesterday that they were happy with the balance on of the car, which was driven on the first day by Hamilton and teammate George Russell. However, Hamilton appeared to struggle on the morning of day two, with the Briton having several snaps of oversteer as he tried to accelerate from some of the corners.
Wolff was asked about the ill-handling W14, with the Mercedes team boss believing that their new car was out of the optimal setup window, and was hopeful that the team could resolve the issue over the course of the day. "The car is out of balance this morning, and you can see that, when driving, it's leaving black marks on acceleration," commented Wolff to F1TV . "It's hot, and we just didn't find the right setup for these conditions, which I guess is part of the learning with a new car. "It's not because the driver is over-driving the tyres or pushing, it's the car that doesn't give you enough grip from the rear. This is something we need to sort out over the course of today." George Russell will be taking over the car for the afternoon running of the second test day.
Most read
