A less than ideal start for Mercedes in Bahrain

Mercedes suffered an out-of-character slow start on the first day of the pre-season testing in Bahrain. The reigning champions, notorious for their metronomic consistency and putting together multiple race distances of the first day of pre-season tests, could complete only a handful of laps on the first day as the team was plagued with issues throughout the first day.

Day 1 of pre season testing 🏁A day with issues and only few laps. Look forward to efficient next two days to learn about #W12 and have some fun 🔥https://t.co/IZIqHSWWH2#VB77 #F1 @MercedesAMGF1 📷 S.Etherington pic.twitter.com/czB3NF1XPx

— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) March 12, 2021

It all started with the very first lap of the season as Valtteri Bottas suffered a transmission failure and failed to play any meaningful part in the morning session.

Lewis Hamilton took over the car in the afternoon session but was unable to string together a substantial number of laps either because the car seemed uncharacteristically unstable. The team finished at the bottom of the charts in terms of the number of laps and lap times.

Talking about the disrupted day, Toto Wolff said a gearbox issue came out of nowhere.

“It wasn’t a good start, because we had a gearbox issue that came out of nowhere that we haven’t yet been ready to identify and understand,” Wolff said.

“So I hope if we can have a smoother ride from here onwards, then I think we can recover."

“If we have more stumbling blocks, then obviously with three days there’s not a lot you can do.”

'Hard to predict where Mercedes stands'

💬 "We’re not happy with how the car is performing and it’s pretty clear we have some work to do."All the latest from Bahrain with Shov, Valtteri and Lewis 👇

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 12, 2021

Talking about the pecking order, Toto Wolff felt it was too early to comment where teams, including Mercedes, stood.

"I think we will see some kind of vague picture after the three days,” Wolff said.

“Bahrain is representative, but these days are very gusty, the wind conditions change from one day to another. And of course, we don’t know the fuel loads, and there’s quite a difference in performance just missing it by 10kg.

“So vague picture, but on the first race weekend, in qualifying, we’re going to know once the flag drops, the bullshit stops.”

Mercedes would be looking to hit the ground running in the coming days as an already congested 3-day pre-season test has been cut further short by one day.