Shovlin less anxious than Hamilton: 'The car seems otherwise reliable'

Lewis Hamilton, in response to Carlos Sainz, indicated that Mercedes is not 'sandbagging' again and that things are seriously not going smoothly at the team. Mercedes chief Andrewy Shovlin nuanced that image to some extent.

Sainz said during the fifth day of testing that he suspects Mercedes of the typical annual games the team plays. Hamilton countered by denying the Spaniard's allegation, saying that the problems at Mercedes are real. The Briton suffered a lot of oversteer and did not have good control of the car, as the porpoising problem is also still unresolved.

Shovlin nuanced this scare about Mercedes' form, saying that while there is certainly still a lot of room for improvement and there is a big challenge, the car does seem reliable. In a press statement, he says: "A packed day with a mix of work on low and high fuel as we continue to learn about the car and tyres. We're exploring a range of setup options to try and improve the bouncing - we have some directions that are able to improve this, but finding the right balance between the bouncing and performance is clearly the challenge."

Tomorrow, the team will continue with the same plan. Although there was room to run a full race today in between the search for the right balance, it still doesn't seem to be going entirely smoothly. Indeed, Mercedes is losing valuable time trying to find a solution to the porpoising problem. A problem that the majority of the other teams seem to be coping with better anyway. Shovlin: "We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but the car appears to be reliable, which has ensured that we have been able to drive a lot of kilometres already."