Mercedes Shows Off New Rear Wing for Bahrain Grand Prix
After almost a week of running data and reflecting on the pre-season testing in Bahrain, the teams are starting to pull out their equipment for the Grand Prix itself. The race weekend starts tomorrow for more testing, but Mercedes is already showing off their new, low-drag rear wing.
Mercedes showed questionable performance over the testing weekend with its drivers maybe lacking confidence in the new W14. But as the weekend progressed, the Brackley team's smiles widened as they eventually found some pace from the zero-podded car. But the news wasn't all good.
"It has been an interesting few days here in Bahrain," Lewis Hamilton said. "There has been a lot of discovery and the whole team has approached it with the same mentality, working hard, not being complacent and staying focused.
"We're not quite where we want to be but it's a good platform to start from. We don't know where we will be next week, but we will stay positive and continue to push to the maximum."
Of course, pre-season testing doesn't reflect the race pace of a car, or even the pace of a car in Bahrain. They're testing for the season, not the race. But this Friday we'll see testing that's specific to Bahrain, and Mercedes have a new piece of equipment to show off.
As reported by Andreas Haupt from Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes will be running a low-drag, low-downforce wing. During testing, the team was struggling with high drag, so this move isn't a surprise as the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari were much faster in a straight line than the Silver Arrow.
With Mercedes employing low downforce from their wing on this medium downforce track, it also hints that the team has plenty of trust in their floor. This will make a nice change after 2022.