Mercedes and Red Bull are reportedly facing the same problems in testing with Ferrari still being considered as favorites.
The start of the 2022 F1 season is just a week away. All ten F1 teams are now in Sakhir for testing, where the first race will also be taking place.
F1 teams are in Bahrain to be a part of the three days of pre-season testing before the real action begins. So far, there have been interesting take-aways from the test. Mercedes arrived with a reduced side-pod and McLaren look like they’re struggling.
Red Bull themselves are not looking as strong as they did last year. Ferrari on the other hand is the only team others on the grid consider to be ‘strong’ as of now.
AMuS reported the words of a Mercedes engineer who believe both the Silver Arrows and Red Bull are facing difficulties.
“Red Bull and us are in the same boat, we are not in our normal form,” he said. “If there was a race on Sunday, Ferrari would win by a clear margin. And the alarming thing is that the other teams are right behind us.”
With the Bahrain GP just days away, they don’t have a lot of time to sort out their problems. In spite of other teams hyping Ferrari’s pre-season up, the Italian outfit keep downplaying the expectations.
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What problems are Red Bull and Mercedes facing in particular?
AMuS went on to describe the problems the top two teams of 2021 are facing. Previous year’s Title rivals are both having issues, but they’re around different areas.
“Mercedes is extremely fast in slow corners, but loses all in fast corners. Red Bull understeers a lot in slow corners & it is too heavy.” To counter these issues, Red Bull are reportedly waiting for a new aero-package.
“That should take away the understeer. And we are trying to slim down the car step by step, to get rid of the weight,” team advisor Helmut Marko said.
Meanwhile, Mercedes are still struggling the porpoising issues that have plagued most F1 teams’ normal testing plans.
“We are up and down with the ground clearance, but the car jumps like a billy goat,” the Mercedes engineer said.
Further reports suggest that Ferrari aren’t the fastest car in terms of raw pace. However, taking reliability and ease of drive into account, no car comes close to the Maranello based outfit as of now. Whether Mercedes and Red Bull have a trick up their sleeve for the Bahrain GP next week, is yet to be seen.
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Red Bull insist that the Silver Arrows are bluffing about their poor performances
The mind-games that go on behind the scenes between F1 teams are constant. Teams often resort to ‘sandbagging’ techniques to catch their rivals off guard.
About Mercedes’ slow pace in pre-season, Red Bull are adamant that the Brackley based team are bluffing. They believe that their best pace is being saved for the season opener.
The Austrian team’s data shows that Mercedes are quick on the slow corners, despite running on a low-power mode. A Mercedes engineer however, insists that they aren’t bluffing about their performances.
“We’re not bluffing,” he said as reported by AMuS. “The porpoising issues are real. And they’re keeping us from understanding and developing the car at the moment.”
