Analyst judges Mercedes to be sandbagging during final pre-season test

17:01, 25 Feb

byKada Sarkozi

Jolyon Palmer thinks Mercedes has a lot more in its tank after the final pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit.

"Drivers, so happy, love everything about this year so far. You have to feel that they have a little bit more in play."

- Jolyon Palmer

The former F1 driver turned analyst believes that the German team's approach "speaks volumes," as they "did not go for performance" during the second week of pre-season testing in Bahrain, he discussed the matter on F1 TV.

On the final day, Charles Leclerc was the quickest with a 1:31.992, while George Russell only set the fourth fastest time after clocking a 1:33.197.

“Well, the car looks good, but they’ve just not shown anything. They did long runs last week, they’ve not done any race runs this week. Smacks of confidence that they don’t need to go and do that," Palmer continued.

“They’ve not done any qualifying runs at the end of the day. Smacks of confidence that they don’t feel they need to go and show their hand. They just, they were nowhere near it.

“Drivers, so happy, love everything about this year so far. You have to feel that they have a little bit more in play.”

Jolyon Palmer - Photo: Race Pictures

Where does Mercedes need to improve?

The Briton believes Mercedes still needs to get better at race starts, especially compared to Ferrari, which seemingly found the best way to tackle the new regulations in this regard.

He also added: "Reliability has been a little bit more questionable, so that’s something hanging over them."