Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton pleased with new car
McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was pleased with his new car which he drove for the first time on Thursday during the second pre-season test session at Jerez, Spain.
McLaren were the only team amongst all top teams, who did not debut their new car on the track for the 2011 season. They launched their car on 4 February, 2011 after the first pre-season test session at Valencia.
After having the first taste of the MP4-26, Hamilton stated, “I was happy with how it felt today. It is definitely a step forward. I haven't yet identified if that's down to an aero or mechanical step forward, but my initial response was that it felt comfortable
to drive.”
The British driver was the fifth fastest on the day and he focused on short runs rather than coming out for longer stints. He claimed that he was very much comfortable in the car and will definitely be winning a lot more races in the upcoming 2011 season.
Hamilton further added that the lap times were not important for the team. He said that the team wanted to understand the set-up of the car and he was trying to getting used to it as well.
The former Formula 1 champion stated that he was playing the role of a test driver on Thursday and had achieved the goal which the team was aiming for before the start of testing.
However, Hamilton feels that there is still quite a lot of work to do. The team tried different things in bits and pieces but Hamilton wants all the things to be tried at once to experience the optimum performance of the car.
McLaren used rear wings and the Kinetic Energy Recovery System separately, but Hamilton wants to test them together in order to find out their results.
Although McLaren were confident of their chances for the new season, there are other teams as well who have made a step forward. Ferrari and Red Bull will also be looking for improvement and will be as tough as ever.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa headed the time sheets with the fastest lap on Thursday. Apart from him, Red Bull’s Mark Webber also looked good and clocked the third fastest time of the day.
However, all of the teams claimed that clocking quicker laps in the pre-season tests will not be important. The teams are looking to gain as much data as possible before the first race at Bahrain and the final testing session will be the most important one.
All teams will be headed to Barcelona after the Jerez tests and the final testing will be conducted at Bahrain, which hosts the first race of the 2011 season on 13 March.
Tags: