Lewis Hamilton said that after the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, the new Mercedes W10 feels like “something different” from the 2018 car.
Valtteri Bottas completed 69 laps in the first half of the first day of pre-season tests in Barcelona, Spain after the new Silver Arrows car drove the first kilometers at Silverstone last week, and Hamilton, who got behind the wheel of the new car after lunch, finished Circle 81.
The pair of drivers finished the day according to the final protocol in the eighth and ninth positions among the eleven riders who went to the track that day.
“It's good to be in the car again, and it's great when the car runs so smoothly,” said five-time world champion Hamilton. - The car is a little different from the one that I piloted last year, and I and the team want as quickly as possible, trying to understand its balance and characteristics, to effectively use it on the track.
It was a very positive first day, we completed our race plan 100% and we received a lot of materials to study and to find out as much as possible about our new car."
"Since this car is completely new, we were lucky to find ways to improve its balance and behavior almost immediately," said Bottas. "And we will continue to work hard on that in the coming test days."
CTO James Ellison confirmed that the team made the decision not to run rush and took a relaxed approach on their first full day with the new car.
“We got a lot from the first day of the race,” he said. “We're looking at how the newest tires of 2019 perform, as well as how the car reacts to changes in settings. Today we did not set a goal to show the maximum pace, but we are very pleased with the handling of the new car and its behavior on the track."
Team boss Toto Wolff noted that Mercedes will not be distracted and pay attention to the results set by their main competitors Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari on the first test day.
“You have to be disciplined,” he said. - We are all interested in seeing the lap times, and obviously we want to always be fast and lead the protocol in every session, but these are the first tests, and they are not intended for that. You need to work out the complete program with all parts and view and analyze all data from sensors, cameras and telemetry.
We do not yet know at all what the position of the participants in the peloton will be at the start of the season in Melbourne, we see no point in striving to lead the protocol, although Ferrari and its drivers look extremely strong today."
