Lewis Hamilton saw little chance Mercedes will catch Red Bull at the start of the upcoming season after his first test in the team’s new car.
He described Mercedes’ W15, which is a significant departure from the team’s previous design, as a “work in progress.”
“It’s definitely improved,” said Hamilton, “I think everyone has. We’re just going through the same sequence everyone is.
“The cars are still stiff and bumpy as we know, this generation of car. But the team have done a great job over the winter.”
Hamilton covered 123 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday and said his new car was clearly an improvement over its unpredictable predecessor. “It was a good day,” he said. “It felt much more enjoyable to drive.”
But he doesn’t expect an immediate change in the team’s fortunes. “We still have time to find,” he said. “I think Red Bull clearly are out in the distance. But I think it’s a good platform to work from this year.”
Mercedes’ trackside engineer director Andrew Shovlin drew encouragement from Hamilton and his team mate George Russell’s first impressions of the new car.
“We’ve had three useful days here in Bahrain and managed to make good progress understanding the W15,” said Shovlin. “Compared to last year’s car, the feedback from the drivers is very different and more positive, which is encouraging. The team has worked hard to iron out the handling flaws that were integral to the W14, and it’s great that we seem to have put a number of those problems behind us.
“Over the course of the test we’ve made good steps on our understanding of the car. The task of the next few days is to pick through the results and put together the best package to take into the race weekend.”
Although he felt rival teams had disguised their true pace in testing, Shovlin said “it’s clear that we are in a much better position than 12 months ago though.”
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