F1: Mercedes Poker Face?

[OverTake.gg]

Mercedes have shown exceptional pace at the final test in Barcelona topping both final days. But are their two drivers playing poker faces?

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time on Saturday with a 1:20.5 which was over a second quicker than any other driver.

The 2008 world champion instantly dismissed claims of being impressed. Alot of the fans were believing this too. "When I'm doing testing, I don't even bother to look at the times" the 28 year old claims.
However, when watching the after session press conference there was something about his claims, when all of a sudden expressing how impressed he is. Lewis then quickly contradicted himself on his next comment saying there was alot of work still needed on the performance of his Mercedes W04. However he praised the teams efforts.

On Sunday, Nico Rosberg then beat his new team-mate's team with a whopping 1:20.1. Rosberg also praised the team and said he was happy with the car, before souring the praise with: "But last winter we had good times and a good car, but apart from my win in China. The Development went backwards"

No matter how hard the two Mercedes drivers try to hide, you can definitely tell they feel in a better approach to start the 2013 Championship.

So do Mercedes have the car to win this year? What do you think?

Image via telegraph

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[Bram Hengeveld]

If the car is a continuation of last year's one then sure. Rosberg already won a race with the Mercedes.

I am personally very interested to see the battle between the teammates as I find Rosberg one of the most underestimated pilots in the current F1 circus.

 

[Tristan Clark]

I really hope that Mercedes have good race pace this year! It's all good to have awesome pace over one lap, but as happened so much last year, Schumacher and Rosberg would fall back from the front within the first 10 laps. Fingers crossed that they will have that sorted in 2013!

Hamilton is also a great addition to the team so I'm expecting big things!

 

[Dion de Martines]

So far Mercedes have fallen back during the year every time they had a good season start. After their victory in Shanghai they didn't show any spectacular results anymore, so I really hope this year they can maintain their pace throughout the season. If only because we want Hamilton to have a car he can have some decent fights in!

 

[Ejike Wodu]

I would love to see Mercedes GP do well this year. We know the real test starts when the season starts and teams start developing and upgrading.

Although Lewis is a brilliant racer, I think Nico has potential. If Nico can stay away from bad luck (which he also has had), I think he will stand out with a good car.

Lastly I wonder whether Lewis has made a contribution to how stable this years car looks.

 

[Carlos Luna]

I think all the teams tend to not look too into the times set during testing. Both Hamilton and Rosberg know that teams don't always get out to set quick laps during testing, and even with their quick times they aren't going to go out and say that they have the best cars in the grid.