Mercedes in more trouble than we think? 'It's not sandbagging'

Mercedes does not seem to be going through the F1 test days without problems. In Barcelona they suffered from porpoising and the problems do not seem to have been solved yet in Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton denies that the team is deliberately sandbagging.

Sainz indicated during the fifth F1 test day, the second test day in Bahrain, that he sees through Mercedes' game. The Ferrari driver calls it a typical Mercedes strategy to pretend to be slower than they actually are during the winter tests. The so-called sandbagging is denied by the team's number one and seven-time world champion Hamilton. The Briton says that already the moments of oversteer show enough. To The-Race.com Hamilton, in fact, reacted to Sainz's statement.

Hamilton denies sandbagging by Mercedes

"We would be very, very, very good if we do these moments of oversteering and the tacky driving on purpose to hide our speed. It's not the case. There are things we have to work around. Other teams don't seem to suffer as much as we do." The biggest problem is that there have been no noticeable improvements since Barcelona. The severe hobbling of the car due to the porpoising has not yet been remedied.

The strong winds blowing in Bahrain are not helping either. Hamilton says that the team is working hard to solve the problems. It just doesn't seem to be working for the time being. The new impressive design of the W13, of which the side pods have almost completely disappeared, is therefore not a strong move by the team. Knowing Mercedes, such problems can often be solved, but it looks worse than expected.