Bottas: “Mercedes W11 can be even faster”

Author of pole last year at the Spanish GP, Valtteri Bottas once again set a great time during the third day of testing in Barcelona by completing a lap of the Catalunya circuit in 1’15”732. With the softest tires (C5), the Finn finished only 3 tenths behind his performance last year even though the conditions were different.

Si Lewis Hamilton was able to train with the same tires, the six-time champion failed more than 7 tenths behind his teammate.

“It was a really fun day, especially doing shorter stints and being able to search the limits of the car a little more. I was able to exploit the performance of the car, confided the author of the reference of the week. It seems that we have made progress with the settings compared to the day before. The car drives great and I'm sure with even more work next week the Mercedes W11 can be even faster and that will obviously be the goal. We made good progress during these three days and it was a great week of testing. »

If the first week of testing does not allow a hierarchy to be established, the stability of the regulations and the visible performance of the W11 allow the team to approach the season with optimism, unlike Scuderia Ferrari.

“We enjoyed a solid day, said Mercedes technical director James Allison. Both drivers were able to run a set-up program and start testing the softer tyres. We will have more soft compounds to test next week. It was a great week of testing, the car was reliable and the performance was reasonably good. There's obviously still a lot of work to be done, but the base is really good. »

“We're starting to get a bit of an idea of ​​the hierarchy after this first week of testing, now that a few race distances have been completed, but things will get really interesting in the second week.”, James Allison promised.

The Mercedes W11 has in any case made the headlines with its Two-Axis Management which could well help it preserve its supremacy. Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), the closest of the Mercedes drivers in Barcelona, ​​ranked more than a second behind the benchmark.

All the information and the complete analysis of these tests, carried out by our special correspondents in Catalonia, can be found in AUTO issue 2256hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version, and from next Wednesday on newsstands. In the meantime, remember that our Guide F1 2020 is available in digital version and on newsstands.