F1 drivers happy with the hurt dished out by faster cars

Battered and bruised, Lewis Hamilton loves the punishment he is receiving from his more physically demanding Mercedes.

Because if some extra soreness is the price for increased speed, then Hamilton and Formula One’s other drivers say they are more than happy to pay it.

“I’m finding the car is much more physical to drive than in the past,” Hamilton said during last week’s first preseason test near Barcelona.

Drivers will have a second round of trying to tame their powerful vehicles on the same track from today to Friday.

“I think the cars look fantastic, the tires look fantastic, the wider wheels, the wider body and the wider chassis,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully it is great for the fans.”

Wider means faster, since the added width on tires and wings increases the car’s grip to the track and lets drivers hit higher speeds while veering through curves. And those faster corners translate into added stress in the form of G-force pummeling drivers’ bodies lap after lap, turn after turn.

“It’s so much faster in the corners. The force you feel on your body and on your neck is much higher,” Hamilton said. “I’ve got bruises and bumps where I’ve never really had them before.”

“These are the hardest cars I have ever driven,” Hamilton told F1.com in a separate interview. “My guess is that in the next couple of months we will see transformation in peoples’ neck sizes and their physical presence.”

Hamilton was not alone in his praise for the results of the biggest rulebook change since 2014 aimed at reinvigorating F1, and possibly producing a challenge to Mercedes’ three-year reign at the top.

Retired champion Nico Rosberg marveled firsthand at the cars he won’t get to drive when he visited the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya