Mercedes dominant again in Formula One preseason testing
Using its innovative steering wheel system, Mercedes continued to dominate in Formula One preseason testing on Friday, with Valtteri Bottas leading teammate Lewis Hamilton at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
On the third and final day of testing this week, Bottas was nearly eight tenths of a second faster than Hamilton, and nobody else was able to get any closer.
Mercedes is using a novel steering system in which drivers pull the steering wheel back and forth to adjust the angle of the front wheels on straights.
“I loved seeing that, hats off to them,” Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo said. “They’ve been dominant this whole turbo era yet they are still pushing everyone else when it should be us pushing them. They are setting an example right now and not many people would have thought about that.”
Ferrari team chief Mattia Binotto said it was too early to understand the benefits of the new system.
“We need to understand how it works and what could be the real performance benefit of it,” Binotto said. “I don’t think we have got a true understanding of it yet. We will look into it no doubt and develop it if worthwhile.”
Ferrari was Mercedes’ biggest challenger last season but it has yet to impress this year. Sebastian Vettel was only 13th fastest on Friday, more than two and a half seconds behind Bottas’ time. The team had to make a power unit change on Vettel’s car after it stopped on the track, although ultimately he was able to run 100 laps in total for the day.
Bottas’ time on Friday was nearly half a second faster than Vettel’s leading lap with Ferrari a year ago. The Italians had been the dominant team in preseason testing last year.
“I am not as optimistic as last year,” Binotto said. “Some of the others are faster than us at the moment, I believe. How much faster is really difficult to judge and I will go through all the data in the next few days but I don’t think we are as fast as them at the moment.”