Drivers: George Russell
Chassis / Engine: FW43B-01 / Mercedes-AMG F1 M12 E Performance
Location: Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain, 5.412 km
Weather: Hot and dry
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We can be pleased with our day’s work today. The car ran reliably throughout, which is testament to the skill and effort of all those in Grove and at the track involved in designing, manufacturing and operating it. We were able to complete over 850km of valuable running, which enabled us to do a lot of testing and to gain further experience of the new Pirelli tyres. We worked through a good programme that included all aspects of a typical race weekend and which stressed the team, including George. Everyone rose to the challenge and is now looking forward to the real test in a few weeks’ time.
It is too early to comment on the pace of FW43B, but we are pleased with our initial findings. There are a lot of things to work on and improve, but we have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the car. We have a good opportunity over the next few days to identify areas that we can develop before the first race, and out of this will come some new test items and a run programme for FP1. We are looking forward to running the car again soon and seeing just how much we can extract from it.
George Russell: It was a very productive day and we put a lot of laps on the board, 158 in the end. The team did a great job over these three days, we have had no reliability issues, and everything ran smoothly. Ultimately performance is what we are here for and I think we have a lot to analyse. Some of our competitors do seem very quick, but equally I think the conditions did not always favour us. We have lots to analyse but overall, it has been a positive test for the team.
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