Formula 1

Mercedes W14 tests without bouncing – Wolff

Published

4 weeks ago

23/02/2023

Mercedes W14 tests without bouncing - Wolff

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said that the W14 car “seems to be balanced in the right way” and that there was no bouncing after the first morning session of pre-season testing.

According to Wolff, during the first 69 laps of testing, the Mercedes W14 did not experience any bouncing.

Mercedes’ new car has not experienced the bouncing problem that severely affected the team’s start to the previous season.

During today’s testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, George Russell drove the Mercedes car for 69 laps and was reported by team principal Toto Wolff to be “generally happy with the car.”

Wolff also mentioned that the Mercedes car seems to be well-balanced and there was no bouncing issue, which is good news. However, there was a big bump at the end of the straight that caused some concern.

Mercedes has a “good starting point” after completing the first half-day of running in the only three-day test before the start of the championship next week.

Wolff also added that they were able to gather a lot of data during the first morning of testing, which was important for them to correlate after last year and try different things. He described it as a productive session.

Bahrain hosted the second pre-season test last year, during which Mercedes already had an idea that they were in trouble. According to Wolff, the car was bouncing around and they were unable to drive it properly.

Wolff noted that the situation is different this year, as they have a solid base to work from and optimize the car, which they haven’t done yet. Their focus now is on finding out if there are any areas that could hinder the car’s performance, similar to the bouncing issue they encountered last year. Wolff said that they need to work through the program to identify any potential problems.

Mercedes was able to largely eliminate their porpoising problem during the 2022 season, but the changes they made to deal with it continued to affect the car’s performance.

Wolff confirmed that they detected some movement in turn 12 during this morning’s session, but it was not as severe as last year and is not limiting the car’s performance.

According to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, Max Verstappen reported that certain parts of the Bahrain circuit have become bumpier. This was corroborated by Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.

Horner noted that the current situation is different from last year, where the car was bouncing like a kangaroo. Although there are some bumpy parts of the track before turn one and turn 12, it’s a different issue and not as severe as last year.