Mercedes unsure about Barcelona: 'Plenty to worry about'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
So far a lot of analyses have been made: Was Mercedes just faster than Red Bull Racing? Had Honda scaled back the engine? Was it because of the slippery track conditions in Portugal? The fact remains that Mercedes scored their second victory in a season that is only three races old. What do the Brackley-based team think?
Concerns
Anyone who thinks Mercedes is sitting back and assuming it has the fastest car is wrong. In fact, they are far from comfortable, something that is further underlined by Adrew Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering director: "We have enough on our list of things to worry about," he says in conversation with Autosport.com.
The cause for concern, according to Shovlin, is the fact that Barcelona is a track that can be compared to Bahrain: "Barcelona is a bit like Bahrain in the sense that you always get a bit overheated, and Bahrain wasn't so kind to us in some ways. It can be quite hot there. It's a tarmac that gets quite aggressive and makes it difficult for the tyres, and we've just done two circuits that were quite cold, and it was quite difficult to get the tyres in the right window."
Enjoying the competition
However, Shovlin does indicate that he is looking forward to the challenge: "I think it's just going to be really exciting and I think we're already kind of setting ourselves up for that. I think that will be the case throughout the year and you have to enjoy the competition and not get too excited about it, because it's going to be a long and tough year."