Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

’Mercedes has got the legs on everyone’

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Williams’ Rod Nelson says “Mercedes has got the legs on everyone” so far in pre-season testing.

Mercedes again completed the most mileage during the second test at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Nico Rosberg also setting an impressive time on the medium compound tyre. Looking at where Williams stacks up in comparison to its rivals, chief test and support engineer Nelson admits Mercedes is quickest but he’s unsure about who could be its main competition.

”I think it’s reasonable to say that Mercedes has got the legs on everyone at the moment,” Nelson said. “Red Bull maybe not so clear, but we know where we are, we know our performance deficits and we know where we’ve got to do additional work.”

Asked about Ferrari’s apparent improvement, Nelson said history had shown that it might not seem to be as significant come the first race in Melbourne.

“Certainly better than last year. I’d imagine a chunk of that is coming with the engine. They tend to be quite competitive in winter but maybe not so much when we start going racing.

“That’s not say you should dismiss them. They’re certainly closer than last year, that’s pretty clear. We keep an eye on everyone.”

Click here for the gallery from day four of the second test

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.