Mercedes focuses its efforts and intends to "fight for victories"

If competition is still on the agenda in this world championship, Mercedes appears for the moment as the only manufacturer capable of holding its own behind the hegemony McLarenFirmly clinging to 2nd place with 93 points (compared to 151 for McLaren), Barkley's team can rely on George Russell, who was still 2nd in Bahrain, with a total of 63 points after four weekends.

Despite this excellent performance, which allowed the Englishman to slot in between the two championship leaders, Andrew Shovlin, the German team's engineering director, provided an analysis of the team's areas for improvement after this intense weekend in Bahrain.

Mercedes analyzes Antonelli's ordeal to bounce back better

"Kimi had a difficult day. His first lap wasn't very good, he suffered some oversteer issues in the first few corners, he went off track in turn five and lost some positions, detailed the engineer after the Grand Prix. This put him in the pack where he struggled to make progress, which led to overheating tires. We took a risk with his strategy but unfortunately it didn't work out. This is part of Kimi's learning curve."

Like the other teams, Mercedes found the task much more difficult in the dirty air of the Sakhir circuit. In response, the company's strategists attempted a total of three stops for the Italian on laps 12, 27, and then 32, forcing him to spend a total of one minute and fourteen seconds in the pits, a damaging record among drivers who finished the race.

Reflecting on the few difficulties experienced by George Russell, particularly at the electronic level, Shovlin also acknowledged a strategy that did not make the work of his pilots easier. "We were slightly disadvantaged by our tire choice before the race. The medium was the best tire in the long run and Ferrari and McLaren had two against one for us. We have a few days to prepare for Jeddah."

ALSO READ > Russell spared by stewards in Bahrain, Hulkenberg disqualified

A surprising W16 for Mercedes, ambition is in order

In line with statements made by Chief Engineer James Allison ahead of the weekend, the car developed by Mercedes for the 2025 season seems to have erased a certain number of problems encountered since 2022. More predictable, less sharp, the W16 surprised even Barkley through its still convincing potential in Bahrain.

“It’s great to be on the podium again in Bahrain and, although we need to bring some speed to be able to fight for the wins, George’s race was pretty straightforward until he started to have lapses in the final stint, added Andrew Shovlin.

According to him, bringing back 18 points from the Sakhir circuit is an additional source of motivation: "It's exciting to have shown such pace on a circuit that is so difficult for the tires, and on which we didn't expect to be particularly competitive."

With the second-fastest average race pace at the end of the Grand Prix, Mercedes are still 482 thousandths of a second behind McLaren's pace. Fast on the soft tires, but not taking full advantage of the medium compound, the Silver Arrows could still make a big impact by performing well in Jeddah next weekend.

As a reminder, the 15 W2024 suffered from a constantly sliding rear axle on this same circuit last year. Unable to maximize their performance in the fast corners in Saudi Arabia, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had finished 6th and 9th in the GP. A further improvement would bring new certainties to the Stuttgart firm.

ALSO READ > Mercedes wants to "raise the bar with future developments"