Will Mercedes once again become the dominant force in F1? 'It looks good'

Mercedes finished the first week of testing in Barcelona the way they did in 2021. As the fastest on the timesheet. In recent years, the timesheet has given some insight into the proportions for the rest of the season, but this year that seems anything but certain. Because of the new regulations many teams are still searching and so the results in Barcelona are no guarantee for success. Still, Mercedes are cautiously optimistic.

"We’re pleased with how the week has gone, we planned a very busy programme for the three days, and we managed to get through the high priority items, making good progress with the car and power unit. It’s very satisfying for everyone to see it cover 1800 km without significant issues, and to show good promise from a pace point of view," Andrew Shovlin, engineer at Mercedes, acknowledged in the press release of the Silver Arrows after the test week.

Mercedes not yet sure of leading position

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were back in the top two spots on the timesheet after the flag fell last Friday, and that gives hope for this season, Shovlin also sees. Nevertheless, he is keeping a wary eye on the situation, also because of the major changes in the regulations. "The rate of progression is going to be very high for all teams and whilst we look to be in a good place here, we need to be mindful that our competitors may have a lot of performance to come between now and the first race."

At Mercedes, therefore, they will not sit still and will be working extremely hard in the coming weeks to get the car ready for the second week of testing and then the first race weekend in Bahrain.

"We’ll be working with the drivers on the simulator over the next few days; we’ve still got work to do tuning the balance both for single lap and long run. Bahrain is a very different circuit to a cold Barcelona, but hopefully we can make good progress in those areas and build on what has been a promising start to our winter testing programme," Shovlin concluded.