Mercedesstrikes firstinf1testing
Lewis Hamilton fired a warning shot to his rivals by finishing on top over the four days of Formula 1 testing in Spain last week, insisting this year’s car is faster than last year’s title-winning machine.
The four-time champion set an ominous early pace by posting the fastest time across the four days on the final afternoon run on Pirelli’s medium-compound tyre.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo topped day one, also on the mediums, while Sebastian Vettel’s day-two best was set on softs, and in considerably warmer temperatures compared to Hamilton’s benchmark.
Many teams lost mileage across the test with severe weather halting almost all activity for the entirety of day three, when snow coated the circuit and led to the day starting three hours late. When the track did go green, Fernando Alonso’s Mclaren was the only car to set a time in wet and freezing conditions.
While hesitant to read too much into early testing times, Hamilton said he could feel that Mercedes’ new F1 W09 is a step forward in pace from the chassis that carried him to nine race wins and a fourth title last term
“It’s an evolution of last year’s car, and we’ve got better tyres and particularly here we’ve got a new track surface, so that might make things seem better than they really are,” said Hamilton.
“It’s difficult to say whether the car is that much better, or how much of it is the track and the grip and the tyres. Next week [in Barcelona again] we’ll get a better understanding. But it definitely feels like a faster car compared to last year’s car, so that’s a big positive.”
Hamilton said he wasn’t putting too much pressure on himself during testing this term.
“Collectively, I’ve done less than a day in the car [over the test duration],” he said. “My mindset is not really like ‘this is the start to getting the next championship’ – although it is – it’s really just about learning as much as we can and being consistent and as diligent as you can in the driving laps you get.
“Of course this is all building blocks for a title fight, but we have no idea where people are. It looks like Red Bull is quite quick, it looks like Ferrari is quite quick, but no-one really knows yet.”
Ferrari ended the test as second-best to Mercedes, and Mclaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne was third overall after finishing second fastest to Hamilton on the final day in the Renault-powered MCL33. However, Mclaren lost mileage when a wheel departed Alonso’s car on the opening morning last Monday, and loose exhaust bodywork caused heat damage on day two. Mclaren’s best times were also set on Pirelli’s new hypersoft compound.
Red Bull suffered from two fuel leaks, which limited Max Verstappen’s running before the Dutchman had an off on the final day.
After three dismal years of pre-season testing, Honda appeared to have made progress with new partner Toro Rosso topping the lap counter across the four days.