Lewis Hamilton has put the main laps on the Mercedes car he trusts will make him best on the planet in the fourth time in 2017. The 32-year-old drove the new Mercedes W08 at Silverstone in tempestuous, sodden conditions.
Hamilton said the car felt “extraordinary” and “quite marvelous” on his first trip. It has been delivered to new controls went for making the cars quicker, more emotional and all the more requesting of drivers. It highlights an exquisite outline, as opposed to a few adversaries, and a strikingly limit raise.
Hamilton said: “Yesterday was the first time I saw [the car] together. It is the most detailed piece of machinery I have seen in F1.
“This is not an actual test – it’s just a few laps to make sure the car will run. But I was able to go faster in the last couple of laps.
“It feels almost identical to last year’s car in terms of ergonomics but you have this bigger, more powerful beast around you.”
His new team-mate Valtteri Bottas, marked by Mercedes a month ago to supplant Nico Rosberg, who resigned in the wake of winning his first world title a year ago, drove the car on Thursday evening. Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said he was seeking after a less crabby relationship amongst Hamilton and Bottas than between the Briton and Rosberg.
“It’s a completely new dynamic,” Wolff said. “I see it as an opportunity to start from square one with a healthy relationship. There are no games, no warfare because there is no history.
“There is a solid foundation that the relationship works well. But you have to be realistic that when they get out there, it is about winning races and championships, and the rivalry could be difficult.”
Bottas said: “What I really like about it is how clean it looks, but at the same time there’s a massive amount of detail.”
Wolff added: “It is a new era of technical innovation, maybe someone has found the silver bullet that makes the difference, like Brawn in 2009. Hopefully it will be us.”
