Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, is not fully satisfied with his car. He believes that the team is “not yet where we want to be” despite great progress at Bahrain pre-season testing.
The team redesigned its new car in order to get rid of last season plague. Last year porpoising incapacitated both Hamilton and team-mate George Russell from making any progress against the Red Bull.
Early preseason testing indicated that W15 has improved especially in enchaining rear end. However, Hamilton is unhappy about the pace which has not yet achieved its target.
“We know we’ve got work to do and we’re not yet where we want to be,” said Hamilton. “We knew that would be the case coming into the test though.
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“We’ve got a great platform to build on. We’ll go away and work hard over the next couple of days to go through all the data from the test. I’m really excited for the start of the season next week and we’ll be heading into it in good shape.”
Russell claims Mercedes had no doubt about Red Bull capacity. But he believes the German outfit has progressed despite struggles from last year.
“The car has been handling well and correlates to the feeling we had on the simulator ahead of coming here,” he said. “We’ve got a very good base to build from.
“We’re aware that there’s a lot more lap time to find. We knew that would be the case ahead of the test, and Red Bull are looking very strong once again.
“Nevertheless, I’m confident that we’re in a much better place than we were 12 months ago. The team at Brackley and Brixworth have done a great job to get us into this position and with a car that is a step in the right direction.
“We now need to focus on firstly getting the most out of the package we have, and secondly adding more downforce and trying to close that gap.”
