© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
F1 tech expert Craig Scarborough says he has “a sneaky suspicion” that Mercedes’ problems with the W13 were due to “them pushing the boundaries”.
On Peter Windsor’s YouTube channel, F1 tech expert Craig Scarborough gave his analysis of Mercedes’ performance at the Bahrain pre-season test, and the problems they seemed to encounter.
“It’s very hard to know exactly where they’re at,” Scarborough said.
“They look like they’re in trouble, and we have to look at history. It’s not the first time they’ve ended testing [saying]: ‘woe is me, this is terrible, the car’s awful’, but it’s clear that the car was a handful.
“If you think at the beginning of the Bahrain test when they unveiled the all-updated W13, everyone was really excited.
“The rumours were it was a second a lap faster than what had gone before, which was already the car that set the fastest time at Barcelona.
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“Something’s gone wrong. I don’t think it was specifically the sidepods, I think whatever Merc’s programme was during Barcelona just didn’t work out.
“I do have a sneaky suspicion that Merc have kind of, not engineered this, but I think this is all a part of what they were planning to try to do with this car in terms of how they were setting it up and running it through the test.
“I think if they really wanted to get it sorted, I’m sure they could have. I think it’s just them pushing the boundaries of what’s going on with the setup with these cars.”
Scarborough basically said he thinks Mercedes did not really attempt to solve the car’s problems, but were actually seeking them out to get to know the limits.
You can watch the full analysis in the video below.
