Mercedes warned about “outlier” result with “ultimate test” to come in Spain

Mercedes have been reminded that their hugely encouraging round in Canada came at an “outlier” track.

The true test of whether Toto Wolff’s team have finally turned a corner with their troublesome car could come this weekend in Barcelona, they have been told.

The F1 Spanish Grand Prix will offer Mercedes the opportunity to build upon George Russell’s pole position, then P3 finish, in Montreal last time out.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth in Canada at a round where Mercedes out-performed Ferrari.

“It’s been a long time since they’ve had a car that looks anything like a car they could campaign with,” Damon Hill told the Sky F1 podcast.

“The drivers were happy. Lewis was notably very happy. It’s not the first time - he’s been happy on a few Fridays but it seems to fade away.

“George did a great job with the car that he had to get pole position.

“The car looked good on the track. Jacques mentioned that it looked planted. He’s right.

“It wasn’t skittish, it wasn’t porpoising, they could use a bit of kerb.

“They are comfortable, happy. The new front wing seems to be the trick that has harmonised the aerodynamics and brought performance.

“But it is an outlier track, Canada.

“To go to Barcelona is the ultimate test of their progress.

“Barcelona is like a wind tunnel, it’s pure aero. Medium to high speed everywhere.”

Naomi Schiff added: “You can tell the direction they’re going in is clearly working.

“Whether that’s because they are developing the car, rather than just putting out fires, I am not entirely sure.

“So many times Mercedes have brought updates that worked better than expected. Or others that they were expecting a lot out of, and there was not correlation between back at base and on track.

“Now, what they’ve done has unlocked potential that was already in the car.

“Everyone is singing the praises of the front wing.

“But it’s not necessarily just the front wing that brings performance.

“It’s the correlation of what it’s doing with how it is interacting with the rest of the car.

“Canada is an outlier. Barcelona has proven to be, in the past, because of its variation of corners, a track that can give an indication of how a car will perform at other circuits.”

This weekend’s F1 Spanish Grand Prix kickstarts a triple-heading including Austria and Silverstone.