Team by team

Mercedes

CAR MERCEDES W11 ENGINE MERCEDES M11

STARTS 210 | FIRST GP FRANCE 1954 | WINS 102 | POLES 111 | FASTEST LAPS 75 | 2019 1ST

There’s no doubt that Mercedes is still the team to beat. During the second Barcelona test, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Valtteri Bottas was able to beat Bottas’s time of 1m15.732s from the last day of the first test, but that time was set when arguably conditions were at their best. It has been an impressive if controversial display.

The long runs certainly put everyone else in the shade, the Silver Arrows able to run consistently in the 1m19s on the medium C3 tyre. Even on two sets of the harder C2, Bottas put in a race distance and then continued running, performing constant-speed tests on the main straight and around Turn 3, gathering important aero information.

The W11 is apparently festooned with all manner of innovations, according to technical director James Allison, the most obvious being the dual-axis steering system. Whether the team goes on to race this idea remains to be seen, as it has raised questions as to its legality. There are certainly advantages on circuits that have long straights, the system also allowing the tyres to be worked harder in twisty infield sections.

It’s interesting to see how Mercedes keeps the front of the car flat when cornering by connecting the two rockers with a small link, but they react together in a straight line. That’s unlike other teams, such as Red Bull, which have an obvious third damper to limit the amount of front-end movement on the straight – Mercedes must use another way to achieve this.

Hamilton has alluded to the fact that Mercedes still has a few engine problems to sort out and this was borne out by Williams having two engine changes over the two tests.

Given its record and the resources at hand, I’m sure Mercedes will still be at the head of the field, but will it be the year that Bottas finally shines?

LEWIS HAMILTON

If only the art of trophy-engraving were as simple as working on a keyboard, the FIA would just have to press ‘command C’ and ‘command V’ on this man’s name every year. Will the F1 gong go to Hamilton for a Schumacher-equalling seventh time? You’d have to say it’s more likely than not, especially as the new W11 has shown blistering form in testing – far better than the W10 did this time last year. And then it won the first eight races…

VALTTERI BOTTAS

After a thoroughly lame end to 2018, he was skating on thin ice going into last year, with Esteban Ocon waiting in the wings ready to step into the Mercedes line-up for 2020. But from a superb Melbourne win onwards, he made huge strides forward