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Mercedes’ claims that Red Bull has an advantage could be spot on, with Lando Norris saying the W12 “wasn’t as good as expected” in testing.
While it seems unimaginable that Mercedes dropped the ball after seven seasons dominating Formula 1, it is possible that they did.
The W12 was off pace in pre-season testing, at least on the surface, with Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap time a second slower than Max Verstappen’s 1: 28.960 pace.
To compound the situation, Verstappen’s time was set on the C4 Pirellis while Hamilton used the softer tires.
Of course, only Mercedes knows if the car was configured to the rating specs and what fuel load they were using.
There were also reliability gremlins for both the Brackley team and the Aston Martin customer, who suffered transmission and engine problems over the course of the three days.
The two teams finished at the bottom of the record for the lap count, Mercedes covered 304 and Aston Martin 10 more. AlphaTauri, the team with the most laps, did 422.
For now, however, it is all speculation.
Norris, however, feels that Red Bull “looked strong” in testing, while the same cannot be said for Mercedes.
He added to Sky F1: “The surprise is the Mercedes, it may not be as good as expected.
“Mercedes doesn’t look particularly good.
“But we all know that they will probably remain strong.”
Three days. 304 turns. Much room for improvement. 💪
Two big weeks are coming up before the season opens here in Bahrain. pic.twitter.com/aHjXfVoZz1
– Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) March 14, 2021
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In telling him Norris’s comments, Mercedes junior driver George Russell, potentially the next driver to compete for the Silver Arrows, downplayed Mercedes’ pace in testing.
He told Motorsport-Total.com: “I didn’t look very closely at the guys in front, but I did ask them how things were going.
“But hey, this is Mercedes! The car will be fine. I’m pretty sure of that. “
As for Verstappen, the Red Bull driver says he’s just testing, it doesn’t really count for anything.
“At the end of the day it’s a test,” he said. “The number of Mercedes best times in test runs has not been that high in recent years. So that doesn’t say much about pure performance. “
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