Pascal Wehrlein says that Manor will be more competitive in Bahrain if it can address the tire degradation issues that hampered the team in the Australian GP.
The German rookie made a good start and ran ahead of cars that should have been faster until he began to suffer serious tire degradation early in each stint.
“The start was great,” said Wehrlein. “I was a bit surprised about my start, because it was my first in F1, but it was amazing. I improved six or seven positions in the first lap, and then we were really competitive in the first few laps when the tires were good.
“But then we had quite big tire degradation, and for me after six or seven laps it got worse compared to the other drivers. Then as soon as we put on some new tires, the pace was back again, so we had a similar pace like in the beginning, so I could fight with other drivers. Then again after a few laps I had more tire degradation.
“So that's the first thing we need to work on, to make the tires last a bit longer. But in general what makes me optimistic that the pace is there, we just need to do some changes on the setup and make the tires last longer, and then we are competitive.”
Wehrlein says he will be a lot stronger in Bahrain: “I learned a lot. It was my first race, and I still have to learn a lot. I have to forget qualifying, because I did only one lap, and it was a mess, this qualifying. So I'm looking forward to the next race. We can learn a lot from the first race and already improve for the next one.”
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