Mercedes claims they’re not bluffing with their pre-season testing performances and feel they’re having porpoising issues.
The current world champions Mercedes are known for not showing their all cards before the season’s first race. Even during this pre-season testing, they are failing/trying not to rock the charts.
Other teams think that Mercedes is sandbagging. However, Mercedes claims they are actually struggling due to the porpoising, which has affected their development.
They even claimed that people thinking they would be at the top during the Bahrain testing are wrong. The first Grand Prix of the season is only a few days away, and Mercedes must find solutions before.
“We’re not bluffing. The problems with bouncing are real. And they’re keeping us from understanding and developing the car at the moment,” said a Mercedes engineer as per AMuS.
However, caution needs to be followed as Red Bull’s GPS showed that Mercedes is extremely paceful in corners. Additionally, they are driving with highly reduced power. But the Mercedes engineer replied: “But we lose everything in fast passages.”
Also read: George Russell admits he doesn’t stand a chance against Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes pin Ferrari as favourites
With the final day of the Bahrain testing, Mercedes has called Ferrari the strongest team in the F1 right now. Mercedes even claimed that if there were a race tomorrow, Ferrari would win it.
“Red Bull and us are in the same boat, we are not in our normal form. 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,” said Mercedes engineer to AMuS.
Meanwhile, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto believes that teams with speed will not win the first race this season. Instead, reliability will be crucial in it.
#AMuS Mattia Binotto believes that the first race will be decided more by reliability than speed. Everything will depend on how much porpoising/bouncing you allow. More is faster, but more strenuous for the material.
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) March 12, 2022
The sandbagging of Mercedes and Red Bull
Maybe, in the end, Mercedes and Red Bull will step up to be the most strong teams next week. Despite their lows in the previous pre-season testing, the two teams are already termed as the favourites for the season.
However, the porpoising issue is a genuine concern every team is feeling. Even if the fastest car has massive problems with it, they wouldn’t be able to nail the races.
Also read: Mercedes engineer insists they’re on the ‘same boat’ as Red Bull in terms of performance
