Bahrain Stress Tests that Mercedes was passed “much better than expected”

In 2024 George Russell And Lewis Hamilton Ended over 45 seconds behind the winner Max Verustapane As the season was going on in Bahrain. Thirteen months, Russell divided Supreme McLaren to second place because the silver arrow appeared to pass a significant stress test.

As red bull wrestling with the balance and grip of the car and Ferrari The race is also struggling to stay at the distance, Mercedes So far, McLaren’s nearest challenger has maneuvering itself. Russell’s third podium in four races – in separate layouts – is demonstrating a stability that he cannot get with a less viable 2024 car.

Prior to the weekend, Russell felt that Bahrain’s desert heat and Sakhir’s Rough Termac would be a real test of how much Mercedes was able to make, and the performance on Sunday appeared to confirm that step.

The team’s principal Toto Wolf said, “We used to expect that Bahrain would have been one of the very difficult people for us due to the hot environment temperature and very granular, some circuit,”

“We made P2 and P4 eligible. We had a car that was able to be solidly on the podium, and it is better than us. You can succeed a race if you win, but in circumstances one can say that it was much better than our expectation.”

Warning remains that catchs its customer team McLaren Will still be difficult Oscar piastry Woned 15 seconds ahead of Russell in a canter, although the difference was exaggerated by the piastry, which was on the favorite medium tire for the second part of the race, while Russell was wearing a soft tire and was struggling with electric gramlin on his car.

“If you see where McLaren was last year (Lando Noris And Piastry finished sixth and eighth in 2024), you can see how soon you can change the tide, “Wolf said.” Perhaps today we were remembering some tenth part. I don’t know how we would have performed on the medium finally.

“When a car is performing in the way McLaren does, it’s all. It’s just good engineering. They have performance in chassis, and they are able to nurture better tires than everyone. And they have a great engine …”

Mercedes is not yet able to determine that Russell’s brake-by-wire failure and other electronic issues that made his last 20 laps so difficult, but looking at the distractions facing Wolf, that Russell’s drive was “incredible”.

He said, “We had a break-by-wipe sudden, and then took some time to find the settings and yet helped it reset,” he explained. “And then, he is managing the system during being behind him, this is just an incredible drive.

“It was also very good to take soft for such a long time, between management and then when he needed to attack. It was just very good skills. We did not have everything that we expected, and we also feared that we would lose the entire dash.

“Obviously, he had (issue) in shift lights, and he did it behind the mind, and it did not take away his concentration.”