Mercedes admitted that after the three days of testing in Bahrain, a weakness that needs to be improved on the W15 is the qualifying pace, as the team sees room for improvement.
The Brackley-based outfit focused mainly on race pace simulations and long runs. Despite the data showing good progress in terms of long stints, Mercedes is not as happy with single-lap simulations.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admitted that the British outfit is “still trying to fine-tune the set-up”.
“We’re still trying to fine-tune the set-up, there will definitely be more to come.
“Overall we’re happy, we definitely made progress. In terms of pace, the long run probably looks like our strength at the moment.
“There’s more work to do on a single lap, but we should be in a position to hopefully put in a good showing when we get back on track.”
Shovlin concluded by saying that Mercedes feels encouraged after having heard Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s comments about the W15. Their feedback confirmed that the issues that both the W13 and W14 had have been fixed.
“It’s really encouraging that a lot of the problems that the drivers have been talking about the last 12 and even 24 months with W13 and W14, we seem to have got to grips with.”