Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Bahrain final test day review 14.03.2021: 2021 Pre-Season Test, Day 3 The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team wraps up 2021 pre-season testing with140 laps on the final day at the Bahrain International Circuit Date: Sunday, 14 March 2021 Driver: Valtteri (AM), Lewis (PM) Circuit: Bahr

 
2021 Pre-Season Test, Day 3

 
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team wraps up 2021 pre-season testing with140 laps on the final day at the Bahrain International Circuit
 

Date:    Sunday, 14 March 2021
Driver:    Valtteri (AM), Lewis (PM)
Circuit:    Bahrain International Circuit
Circuit Length:    5.412 km
Laps Completed:    Valtteri 86, Lewis 54, Total 140
Distance Covered:    Valtteri 465.43km, Lewis 292.24km, Total 757.67km
Best Lap Time:    Valtteri 1:32.406, Lewis 1:30.025


 
A solid day for the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team saw the W12 E Performance manage 750km of running to conclude pre-season testing in Sakhir, with Valtteri and Lewis sharing driving duties.



•    Valtteri took to the track this morning under clear blue skies, putting together 86 laps of long run set-up work and general balance learning.

•    Lewis jumped in the cockpit for the afternoon session completing a mix of long-run and qualifying work over 54 laps.

•    The team covered 304 laps over the three-day test.

•    Mercedes-Benz Power Units completed a total of 3,063km today.





Valtteri Bottas


Day one was compromised for me so I'm pleased the past two days have been efficient and clean. Today, like yesterday, we had plenty of laps and ran good quality tests.


I'm still not entirely comfortable but we've been moving forward and getting better. There's still more work to do; we've collected lots of data over these past few days which we will analyse to help us make the car faster ahead of the first race.
 


Time is even more limited now with the recent changes but our recovery from the first day has been very good. I absolutely believe that the car and team has the potential to fight for the title. I don't think the package is quite there yet in terms of performance but I have no doubt it will be.


I feel like I've had enough time in the car, performing short runs and long runs, and I really feel comfortable and confident. From my side I'm ready and as a team, we will be ready.
 




Lewis Hamilton


I've never been a massive fan of testing, I just love racing! It's probably the only year I would have asked for more days though, because we've got lots of work to do.


We've never felt in the past that we were quicker than everyone else after testing because you never know what people are doing with the fuel and set-ups. We always just focus on understanding our car the best way we can so if I'm honest, I feel the same this year. We won't know until we get to qualifying in two weeks' time exactly where we stand.
 


Today we made some improvements but it's still not where we want to be. I can't pick out any one area, it just feels globally through the lap that we need to improve. I'm looking forward to getting back into competition and back in that focus mode. Our team is all rowing in the same boat - we win and we lose together. I'm just happy to start another journey together with these boys and girls.
 




Andrew Shovlin


We've had another day with good reliability where we were able to run to plan throughout the day. Valtteri was doing long run setup work in the morning and Lewis doing a mix of long run work and qualifying work in the afternoon. We've made a bit of progress with the balance on higher fuel and the car was more predictable but we can see from the data we've collected over the last few days that on race pace, we're not as quick as Red Bull.


The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn't gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today. We've had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time.



We've not got long before we're back here for the race so we've planned a programme of work to try and understand some of our issues and will be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to find some more speed over the next ten days.
 

 
 
Pos.     Driver     Team     Time     Laps


1     Max Verstappen (33)     Red Bull     1:28.960     64
2     Yuki Tsunoda (22)     AlphaTauri     1:29.053     91
3     Carlos Sainz (55)     Ferrari     1:29.611     79
4     Kimi Räikkönen (7)     Alfa Romeo     1:29.766     165
5     Lewis Hamilton (44)     Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team     1:30.025     54
6     George Russell (63)     Williams     1:30.117     157
7     Daniel Ricciardo (3)     McLaren     1:30.144     75
8     Sergio Perez (11)     Red Bull     1:30.187     49
9     Fernando Alonso (14)     Alpine     1:30.318     77
10     Charles Leclerc (16)     Ferrari     1:30.486     80
11     Lando Norris (4)     McLaren     1:30.661     56
12     Pierre Gasly (10)     AlphaTauri     1:30.828     76
13     Esteban Ocon (31)     Alpine     1:31.310     61
14     Nikita Mazepin (9)     Haas     1:31.531     67
15     Mick Schumacher (47)     Haas     1:32.053     78
16     Valtteri Bottas (77)     Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team     1:32.406     86
17     Sebastian Vettel (5)     Aston Martin     1:35.041     56
18     Lance Stroll (18)     Aston Martin     1:36.100     80



 
Bradley Lord- photos Mercedes