Mercedes encouraged with 'much calmer, more stable' W14 car

Mercedes says it enjoyed a productive opening day of testing in Bahrain, with the Brackley squad's new W14 running faultlessly in the hands of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Russell undertook data logging and set-up work in the morning session, completing 69 laps and setting the ninth fastest time overall.

"It is still too early to say where our performance levels are relative to the competition, but we had a clean day and learned a lo," Russell said. "There are plenty of positives to take away and we can focus on maximising the potential of the car in the coming days."

Hamilton took over in the afternoon to tag on 83 additional laps during which the focus switched from baseline running to long runs and to a tyre compound sweep, the seven-time world champion clocking in P6 in the final pecking order.

"We got through our programme and have gathered lots of data," said Hamilton. "We also had good reliability which contributed to our strong mileage total.

"That is down to the amazing work done back at Brackley and Brixworth. We've got to keep pushing, focus on ourselves, and stay focused.

"It's difficult to know where we are in the order, but we'll get a better feeling in the days to come."

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From the outset on Thursday, it was clear that Mercedes' new challenger was a much more stable proposition than its erratic 2022 predecessor.

"The car has run faultlessly from start to finish and that has allowed us to complete an ambitious programme for day one," commented Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.

"It always takes a few days to understand a new car, but we've got a reasonable handle on where we want to improve the balance. It was encouraging that it's a much calmer, more stable platform to work with than the W13.

"The performance picture is always blurred after the first day so it's impossible to say where we stand, but we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance.

"We'll work on the assumption that we're playing catch up and need to pull out all the stops to find performance ahead of the first race here in one week's time.

"The next two days are going to be just as packed as today as we're squeezing every bit of learning we can into the programme.

"Hopefully the car continues to run like clockwork, and we can make the most of the remaining track time."

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