Mercedes bring new upgrades to Bahrain Grand Prix after struggles

Hamilton opens up on plans to remain in F1 ahead of new season

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Mercedes have introduced a new rear wing to the W14 a week on from their Bahrain testing woes. The Silver Arrows have installed a more aggressive medium downforce rear wing ahead of the first race in a bid to close the gap to their rivals.

The new design is expected to create less downforce and could give Lewis Hamilton and George Russell a speed boost. It comes after the German manufacturer struggled to light up the leaderboards over three days running in Sakhir last week.

The team appear to be a fair way behind Red Bull and Ferrari with fears Aston Martin could also get the jump on them. Mercedes’ new concept was spotted in the garage as the team prepares for action to get underway on Friday.

Technical director Mike Elliott had already admitted the team were likely to change the rear wing ahead of the first race weekend. Elliott explained: “We were probably not wearing the wing we wear when we come racing.”

Over the three-day test, Mercedes decided to maintain the same downforce levels instead of experimenting.

Elliott seemed to suggest this was a strategic decision to get to grips with their new car with limited running before the first race.

He added: “We’ve developed the car’s [aerodynamic] efficiency quite a lot over the winter. Where we choose to run the race is about how we think is the best way to run the race.

“Obviously in testing, it’s just about trying to understand and so we’ve not done any work moving up and down in terms of downforce level. We’ve kept it constant and tried to get all the data we can from the car to understand as much as we can and the issues we may face, and just build from there.”

As well as lacking pace to the frontrunners, Mercedes were also plagued with a range of issues on day two. Hamilton suffered floor damage on Friday morning which forced the seven-time champion into the pits for repairs.

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Russell then stopped with a hydraulics failure 90 minutes before the end of the session which curtailed the team’s afternoon running. Hamilton admitted the team still had a “mountain to climb” before they could be truly competitive.

But, the Briton still revealed the team’s new machine appeared stronger than the W13 which engineers battled to fix throughout last season. He commented: “This year we have some things we need to work on. It’s still not perfect, and we are still not able to match the Red Bulls currently, or the Ferraris maybe. But, as I said, it is better.

“There are things that have changed. The bouncing has gone, and there are a couple of elements that have been better so far. Who knows where we will be next week. We’ve just got to stay positive, manifest what we want, and continue to push.”

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