The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team was back in action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, completing 179 laps on the first day of the second test

Date:                            Wednesday, 26 February 2020

Driver:                          Lewis Hamilton (AM), Valtteri Bottas (PM)

Circuit:                         Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Circuit Length:              4.655 km

Laps Completed:          Lewis 89, Valtteri 90, Total 179

Distance Covered:        Lewis 414 km, Valtteri 419 km, Total 833 km

Best Lap Time:             Lewis 1:17.562, Valtteri 1:18.100

It was a busy first day of the second pre-season test for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, with Valtteri and Lewis managing 833 kilometres of running with the new car.

• Lewis was behind the wheel in the morning session and focused on set-up work on longer runs, alongside gathering aero data and trying out new aero components
• Valtteri took over for the afternoon and ran a similar programme of car set-up, aero data collection and correlation work
• Today’s programme focused primarily on testing, correlating and gathering data on new aerodynamic components, as well as longer runs and set-up work
• Mercedes-Benz Power Units completed a total of 1,923 km today
• Rights-free imagery of the day is available on our media site
• To download all available imagery from today with just one click, please use the following link (please note that imagery will download in a zip folder): Image selection
• Valtteri will be driving the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance tomorrow morning, before Lewis takes over for the afternoon

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a good session and a good start to the second week of testing here in Barcelona. We’ve just got our heads down, trying to continue increasing our mileage and our understanding of this car – through the subtle changes with car set-up, the tyres and the aerodynamic package. A fairly standard day, but it was a bit windier out there and it felt like the track had less grip – so there was some sliding around. The car didn’t quite feel as good as the first week, but I’m sure that will change as the test progresses and the track conditions improve.

Valtteri Bottas

Very good mileage today, 90 laps. For half a day in the car, that’s really good. We got some good set-up tests done and focused on long running. I think we picked up lots of learning points, although it was a bit tricky this afternoon with gusty wind, which made it sometimes more difficult to understand the set-up changes in detail. But I am sure we’ll analyse everything overnight and find the learnings from it. Everything ran smoothly, except a slightly late start to the day with some big changes over lunchtime. But still we got some good running in and it’s good to be back in the car again.

James Allison

It was a productive day both in the morning and the afternoon, taking the opportunity that winter testing grants us to explore the car thoroughly, in ways that are near-impossible once the racing season starts. We tested the new prototype tyre with Lewis in the morning, which was trouble-free, and ran through set-up changes with both drivers. It was an interesting day, because it got quite gusty at various points. That was useful for us, learning how to get the best from the car as the wind picks up. Tomorrow, we will continue to explore the basic behaviour of the car, before focusing more on performance on the final day of testing.