2021 Formula 1 Thread

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by danegrey

watching testing and the amount of blowing sand all over the place WOW,
Merc's have had transmission problems in the morning, HAAS too..
Ferrari had a mechanical issue at the end of the morning..

Testing was crazy today lol. Nice its not in Spain so good change!!

Via BBC F1--
What went wrong at Mercedes?

World Champions Mercedes' day started badly when Bottas suffered a gearbox problem after just one lap.

Mercedes decided to change the gearbox and investigate the problem later, but that cost the Finn nearly all his first day's running and he managed only a further five laps before handing over to Hamilton for the afternoon.

Team principal Toto Wolff said:"It wasn't a good start because we had a gearbox issue that came out of nowhere that we haven't yet been able to identify and understand."

When Hamilton went out at the start of the afternoon session, conditions were at their worst, the Sakhir track enveloped in a sand cloud and conditions on track treacherous, the cars throwing up plumes of sand.

Hamilton found the car's balance to be poor and returned to the pits for set-up changes.

When he returned to the track, the team concentrated on long runs with high fuel loads and used only the hard 'C2' tyres while others explored the faster and grippier C3s and C4s.

Still the car did not look comfortable, though, with Hamilton clearly struggling for grip and having a number of 'moments' where he struggled to keep control, ran wide or locked a wheel.