Let’s take a look at the speed trace comparison of Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (in red) and Lewis Hamilton (in blue) from the second day of 2022 Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain. We can notice that there is very little difference in corner speeds between the F1-75 and the W13 cars. However, the Mercedes is consistently tailing off on acceleration in the final parts of the straights.
The data recorded in this graph strongly suggests that the Mercedes car is reducing its electrical deployment earlier on the straights than the Ferrari and Carlos Sainz feels this is a deliberate tactic by Mercedes.
The other possibility of course is that the Mercedes simply is not able to deploy as effectively as the Ferrari F1-75 car, but this scenario is highly unlikely if we consider the fact that it has never been a problem with previous Mercedes power units.
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