Mercedes and Ferrari note that already in Bahrain F1 testing they knew it will be an uphill task to catch Red Bull with their unpredictable car.
Even though the F1 teams put up a brave face at the start of the year to challenge Red Bull, deep inside they knew already that it won’t be an easy task, maybe even impossible one. This is very common to remain optimistic even though they know their situation.
It happened with Mercedes and Ferrari both as they admitted that they knew already in Bahrain F1 testing in 2023 that they are not likely to challenge Red Bull realistically especially with the unpredictable car they have at their disposal.
“Bahrain testing,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “No, I think from a Mercedes standpoint, we had a really good end of the season in 2022 and we believed that we can fix this, stick to the concept of the car and get better out of the blocks in ‘23.
“And already in testing, we could see that that didn’t happen. The drivers basically described the same pattern of behaviour of the car, it was unpredictable, no rear end and it was clear that this is not going to go our way.”
His Ferrari counterpart Frederic Vasseur added: “The first morning of the test, I think that it was quite obvious already that… but then you have still some hopes, you are developing the car, you are pushing, you are hoping to do pole position, to win one or two races, but I think at the end that Max will win all the races except one, two or three maximum.
“It was a tough season. I think the most important thing in our business is to have a clearer picture of what we are doing and to try to improve and the result is what we were expecting,” summed up Vasseur, whose team were the only one to beat Red Bull outright in a grand prix apart from McLaren doing so in a sprint event.
Here’s FIA in process of sending the trophy
Here’s Lewis Hamilton calling it unacceptable of what FIA did
Here’s Mercedes undertaking tyre testing
Here’s Charles Leclerc being disappointed by 2023
Here’s Frederic Vasseur on wanting to put pressure on Max Verstappen
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