The German manufacturer has revamped its car for this year in a bid to dial out the obvious weakness that plagued Hamilton and team-mate George Russell throughout 2023.
Although early running of the W15 appears to indicate that the Mercedes 2024 challenger has dialled out many of its vices – including the ‘spiteful’ rear end – Hamilton has suggested that pace-wise it has not yet hit 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.
“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 said Mercedes was in no doubt that world champion Red Bull remained out in front based on the impressive pace of the RB20, but felt his own outfit was in a much better place than it was 12 months ago.
“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.
Source: Autosport