Bahrain I, Day 4: Mercedes test report

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS concluded the second pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit today, with Nico Rosberg taking the wheel of the F1 W05 for the final day. Nico’s time of 1:33.283 topped the timesheets and proved to be the fastest lap of the four-day test.

— The team’s programme consisted of shorter runs this morning, followed by a race simulation in the afternoon

— We suffered from two red flag stoppages for our car, both for different reasons but neither of which are insurmountable

— Overall, the team are happy with the lap count and the work achieved this week, and look forward to the final test

The team’s pre-season programme will continue in Bahrain next week with the third and final test beginning on 27 February.

Nico Rosberg

We can be very pleased with the first test in Bahrain this week. We completed a lot of mileage and learnt more about the car with every lap we achieved. This morning we were able to try some qualifying practice runs which felt good, meaning I could attack the lap a bit as I found a good balance. Later in the day we did a race simulation, which was crucial to learn all the new things in the car. There was a lot of feedback from the engineers, so my head was full of information! We suffered with an issue at the end of the day which ended our programme slightly early. There is still some way to go for us to manage the reliability before Melbourne as this will play a huge factor in the early races, but we’re hopeful that we can make another step towards achieving this next week.

Paddy Lowe

The final day of the test today saw us complete some lower fuel runs on softer tyres to get a series of one-lap simulations under our belt. We were happy with how the car responded to this programme. We then moved onto a race distance that we were able to complete, albeit with a pause in the middle for a red flag. It was pleasing to be able to complete that amount of running without any problems in the car. We attempted a further test programme at the end of the day but an issue halted that earlier than we hoped, meaning our day ended there. It’s been a very positive week but we still have a lot of work to do next week to be prepared in time for Melbourne. A great job so far by the whole team trackside and back at Brackley and Brixworth.