Mercedes not really in trouble: 'This seems part of the plan'

Mercedes itself states that it is in bad shape after the winter test in Bahrain, but Craig Scarborugh doesn't want to believe that. In fact, the technical expert thinks that Mercedes is looking for these very limits to get to know the car better.

Problems in Bahrain

This is not the first time that a winter test of Mercedes has not gone ideally. The German racing team suffered from porpoising, hardly set any fast times and the car seemed difficult to control for the drivers. However, we have seen this before with Lewis Hamilton's team, after which the Brit or his teammate often managed to win the first race of the season.

"Very hard to know exactly where they're at. They look like they're in trouble, and we have to look at history. It's not the first time they've ended tests with the story that the car is terrible, but clearly, the car was a handful," said Craig Scarborough in a YouTube video from Peter Windsor.

Mercedes' plan

"I have a sneaky suspicion that Mercedes haven't engineered this, but it's all part of a plan. If they really wanted to sort it, I'm sure they could have. They're just trying to push the boundaries of what can is going on with the setup with these cars."

According to Scarborough, Mercedes therefore made no attempt to really solve their problems, but rather sought them out. In this way they were able to understand the limits of the car in order to go to the first race weekend with as much data as possible. Whether this will result in another victory remains to be seen.