Mercedes: Today was not about absolute pace

The World Champions went about their business of dialling in the W10 with both Valtteri Bottas (on morning duty) and Lewis Hamilton (afternoon duty) both happy with the first day with the car they are hoping will back them another two titles to add to the ten they have amassed in the past five years.

Technical chief James Allison summed up, “The first day with a new car is always a really exciting thing and today was not a bad start. Both drivers had their first taste of the W10 and got 150 trouble-free laps on the board by the end of the day."

"We managed to squeeze quite a lot into this first day of running, finding out both how the 2019 tyres are working and also learning about the way the car responds to set-up changes. Today was not about absolute pace and we’re reasonably pleased with the handling of the car and the way it is behaving."

Hamilton, back from an adventure packed holiday off-season, was satisfied after his half day in the car, It's good to be back in the car and it's great to see the car is running as smoothly at it is."

"It feels quite a bit different compared to last year and we're now getting to know it, trying to understand the balance and trying to understand the characteristics we're working with."

"It's been a positive first day, we got through our running plan and there's lots for us to learn about the new car which we will be working on," added the five-time F1 World Champion.

Valtteri Bottas echoed the team line, "I quite enjoyed this morning, it's good to be back at the track. I did 69 laps and there were no major issues with the car, so it was a relatively successful run."

"Since the car is brand new, we immediately found ways to improve the balance and the behaviour and we will continue to work on that in the next days."

"It's good to see the car running well and it proves that the entire team is doing a great job, both in Brackley and Brixworth, but also here at the track. I'm looking forward to a more time in the car tomorrow afternoon," added the Finn.

Team chief Toto Wolff was wary of unleashing the beast too early, "You need to be disciplined because we are all keen and looking at lap times, and obviously you want to be quick and on top of the leaderboard at every single session, but it’s not the purpose of the test."

“It’s to go through all the parts that you want to look at and what the data and sensors tell you. But yes, I’ve seen the time... definitely the Ferrari has been going strong this morning.”

The 'gunpowder' is obviously being kept dry in the Mercedes pit garage, when they do unleash those horse it will be interesting to see how things stand relative to Ferrari who have galloped out of the starting gates.

For now, these are very early days, but it would be fair to assume that both teams have the foundation for good race cars.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/02/18/vettel-an-unbelievable-first-day/