A jam-packed three days of running in Bahrain comes to an end.
361 laps completed. 1,952 kilometres of running. A whole host of data gathered. Plenty of learning and knowledge gained about the W15.
It’s been a productive few days of pre-season testing in Bahrain. Overall, the initial feedback is that the team has created a much more stable platform to work from. So a good start to the year.
We caught up with Shov, Lewis, and George to get their immediate thoughts.
We've had three useful days here in Bahrain and managed to make good progress understanding the W15. Compared to last year’s car, the feedback from the drivers is very different and more positive, which is encouraging. The team has worked hard to iron out the handling flaws that were integral to the W14, and it's great that we seem to have put a number of those problems behind us.
Over the course of the test we've made good steps on our understanding of the car. The task of the next few days is to pick through the results and put together the best package to take into the race weekend. It's never easy to make predictions on pace from testing, as all teams are quite effective at hiding their pace when they want to. It's clear that we are in a much better position than 12 months ago though. We've got a busy few days ahead now making our final preparations for the season-opener, and we're already looking forward to the race weekend and the season ahead.
We’ve had a solid three days here in Bahrain. We managed to get through all of our planned programme, despite the stoppages. The car has been handling well and correlates to the feeling we had on the simulator ahead of coming here. We’ve got a very good base to build from.
We’re aware that there’s a lot more lap time to find. We knew that would be the case ahead of the test, and Red Bull are looking very strong once again. Nevertheless, I’m confident that we’re in a much better place than we were 12 months ago. The team at Brackley and Brixworth have done a great job to get us into this position and with a car that is a step in the right direction. We now need to focus on firstly getting the most out of the package we have and secondly, adding more downforce and trying to close that gap.
Overall, it’s been a really good test. I’m really proud of everyone trackside and those back at the factory. Every single woman and man has been working tirelessly, both at Brackley, Brixworth, and here in Bahrain. It’s massively encouraging and great to see everyone working so well together. The focus, determination, and communication is the best I’ve ever seen.
We know we’ve got work to do and we’re not yet where we want to be. We knew that would be the case coming into the test though. We’ve got a great platform to build on. We’ll go away and work hard over the next couple of days to go through all the data from the test. I’m really excited for the start of the season next week and we’ll be heading into it in good shape.