Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says that the W10 suffered from front tyre graining when they sent Lewis Hamilton on a race simulation during the afternoon.
Mercedes continued their predilection for running both of their race drivers during the day’s testing on Wednesday. Valtteri Bottas was at the wheel of the car during the morning, before Lewis Hamilton took over for the afternoon.
Both drivers would finish amazingly close on the timesheets. Valtteri Bottas logged 74 laps during the morning session and set a best time of 1:18.941 on the C3 tyre. Lewis Hamilton’s best time in the afternoon was 1:18.943, also set on the C3 tyre. Hamilton managed 102 laps during the PM session.
Hamilton’s time on track also included a planned Mercedes race simulation, which James Allison later explained saw the front tyres on the W10 suffer from graining that hampered their pace: “The race run in the afternoon, although quite considerably quicker than the last race simulation we made, was marred by front graining – something which we think, looking up and down the pit lane, could be a feature of the year. We need to make progress on graining resistance in the next couple of days, in order to make sure we have a good way of handling it by the time the racing season begins.”
Speaking after his afternoon in the car, Hamilton admitted that there are still some ‘little hurdles’ to overcome as Mercedes continue to try to understand the W10: “We got a lot of laps today which is a good thing, but we’ve come across a few little hurdles, so we’re just working our way through them, trying to be as diligent as possible trying to understand the causes – which is exactly what testing is for. Everyone is working flat-out and I’m sure we will get there. You need days like this to be able to bring light to the things that we need to work on.”