Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Bahrain test day 1 -Productive First Day in Bahrain 23.02.2023: Aramco Bahrain pre-season test Sakhir, Bahrain, day 1 Thursday, February 23rd 2023 Driver: George Russell (AM), Lewis Hamilton (PM) Circuit: Bahrain International Circuit Circuit Length: 5.412km Laps Completed: George 69, Lewis 83, Total 15

Aramco Bahrain pre-season test
Sakhir, Bahrain, day 1
Thursday, February 23rd 2023



Driver:    George Russell (AM), Lewis Hamilton (PM)
Circuit:    Bahrain International Circuit
Circuit Length:    5.412km
Laps Completed:    George 69, Lewis 83, Total 152
Distance Covered:    George 373.428km, Lewis 449.196km, Total 822.624km
Best Lap Time:    George 1m34.174s (C3), Lewis 1m33.508s (C3)

 


It was a productive first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain. The Team completed an extensive programme, focusing on learning, correlation, and data gathering with the W14.
 


George drove in the morning, initially running with aero rakes before switching to set-up work halfway through the session. He logged 69 laps of running and posted a best time of 1m34.174s on the C3 tyre.
 


Lewis took over for the second half of the day, completing 83 laps and finishing with a fastest time of a 1m33.508s also on the C3 tyre. Following baseline running to begin the session, the focus switched to long runs and a tyre compound sweep as the sun set.
 





Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director


We've had a solid start to testing. The car has run faultlessly from start to finish and that has allowed us to complete an ambitious programme for day one. It always takes a few days to understand a new car, but we've got a reasonable handle on where we want to improve the balance. It was encouraging that it's a much calmer, more stable platform to work with than the W13.
 


The performance picture is always blurred after the first day so it's impossible to say where we stand, but we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance.


We'll work on the assumption that we're playing catch up and need to pull out all the stops to find performance ahead of the first race here in one week's time. The next two days are going to be just as packed as today as we're squeezing every bit of learning we can into the programme.



Hopefully the car continues to run like clockwork, and we can make the most of the remaining track time.



 
George Russell


It was great to be back out in the car and get a first real experience of the W14. It is still too early to say where our performance levels are relative to the competition, but we had a clean day and learned a lot.


There are plenty of positives to take away and we can focus on maximising the potential of the car in the coming days.
 





Lewis Hamilton


It's good to be back in the car here in Bahrain. It was a nice, cool afternoon weather-wise, though windy. We got through our programme and have gathered lots of data. We also had good reliability which contributed to our strong mileage total; that is down to the amazing work done back at Brackley and Brixworth.



 We've got to keep pushing, focus on ourselves, and stay focused. It's difficult to know where we are in the order, but we'll get a better feeling in the days to come.
 




-  Bradley Lord, photos Mercedes