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Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton hailed his ‘fantastic’ Mercedes after wrapping up ‘an incredible week of testing’ at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Hamilton did 342 laps in total, 156 of them on the first day when the car was still fresh out of the garage. That works out at 1,592km, more than five race distances at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit.
With the V6 turbo hybrid power units now in their third year, reliability has been much better across the field than it was a year ago with far fewer red flags to stop the track action.
“I’ve never had a week like this when the car has just kept going on and on and on,” said Hamilton.
Champions Mercedes have far outstripped their rivals in mileage terms, a better benchmark at this stage than outright pace because cars can have different fuel loads.
But Hamilton – who has won the past two championships and is aiming to become the first Briton to win four world titles – still believes the season, which kicks-off in Australia on March 20 before moving on to Bahrain on April 3, will be tough.
“Every year you have to expect it to be harder. In terms of my preparation, I’m preparing for the hardest season I’ve had so far,” said Hamilton. “The car looks fantastic. Obviously we don’t know the pace of the car just yet but what we can say is that it’s gone the distance and that’s half the battle.”
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fastest on the final day of last week’s testing, ahead of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat.
Ferrari, closest rivals to Mercedes last year, have looked quick with Sebastian Vettel fastest in the first two days and Finnish team mate Raikkonen sounding happy enough as well. “I am sure it’s going to be a better car than last year’s,” he said. “We are happy so far even if we know there are still a lot of things to do.”
