Mercedes is worried about only having three days of testing
After a failed car last year, Mercedes takes preseason tests very seriously and is worried that three days may not be enough to solve any potential issues with the W14.
The F1 has decided to only organize one testing session at the beginning of the 2023 season compared to two last year. The ten teams will therefore gather in Bahrain in a week for their only three days of testing. Everyone will have plenty to do to fine-tune the cars before a busy season, with 23 Grand Prix on the schedule.
After a complicated 2022 season due to an far from ideal Week 13, Mercedes fears that with only three days on the track, it will be difficult to fix last-minute issues.
“We never really managed to master the balance of the car last year,” said the team’s technical director, Mike Elliott, during the presentation of the W14. “All the usual work we do at the beginning of the season did not take place because of the issues we were trying to rectify.”
(D) Reliability, correlation, and learning will be at the center of our concerns during pre-season testing in Bahrain. With only three days of running before the first race weekend of the season, an efficient and successful test is mandatory, he added.
