© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Despite Mercedes not being on top in Friday’ Bahrain Grand Prix free practice sessions, Toto Wolff is no too displeased with the team’s performance and says “the drivers were actually quite satisfied”.
After somewhat struggling in pre-season testing, Mercedes again wasn’t a dominant force in the Bahrain Grand Prix free practice sessions. However, Toto Wolff says the team is moving in a good direction.
“It could have been worse,” the Austrian told Sky Germany.
“After the tests, we thought that we wouldn’t have the car in the sweet spot. Today the drivers were actually quite satisfied.”
With Max Verstappen on top in both FP1 and FP2, Wolff once again reiterates that Red Bull is currently ahead of Mercedes.
“It will be a real dogfight against Red Bull over the season. At the moment we can still see them a bit ahead.
“At least the rear is no longer as nervous as it was. The car is still difficult to understand at the moment.
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“We had to change the aero balance a bit. That bit us in the long run too and it was better for a single lap.
“It’s just so very close that every kilogramme in fuel load can make quite a big swing. So we don’t really know. I think we are definitely closer here than we have been in testing.
“But I wouldn’t know where to put our position versus Red Bull.”
Wolff was then asked if Mercedes can do some work on their cars overnight to bring them closer to Red Bull.
“I think tyre wise, there’s not a lot you can do. So it’s setup work. You can see that the long runs from many competitors, the McLarens, the Red Bulls have been pretty flat. So there was not a lot of degradation.
“And with Valtteri [Bottas], we’ve seen that, you know, we lost it a little bit, but we know where to tune.”
