Hamilton relieved Mercedes put testing “struggles” behind them

2017 Australian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton said he is pleased Mercedes have put the problems they experienced in testing behind them after topping the first two practice sessions of 2017.

The Mercedes driver ended Friday running half-a-second quicker than any other driver. His team had been six-tenths of a second slower than Ferrari in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Australian Grand Prix Friday practice in pictures
Hamilton said his first day had been “99 per cent perfect”.

“After struggling with some issues in Barcelona, we didn’t know if we’d have the same thing here,” he said. “What’s really encouraging is that we’ve arrived at the track just a week later and the car is exactly where it should be.”

Hamilton said the team had “got every lap done that we wanted to” and shown good form “on both the long and short runs”.

He admitted to having been uncertain about how strong Ferrari would be to begin with.

“Coming into today, we really didn’t know where we’d be,” he said. “We knew from FP1 that the Ferrari’s weren’t at their maximum. Of course, in FP2 all of a sudden they were quick.”

“We’ll see tomorrow how it really stands,” Hamilton added.

Hamilton ended practice over half a second ahead of his new team mate Valtteri Bottas.

“We still have work to do with the car balance but we got all of our running completed without any issues,” said Bottas. “I definitely feel like I can make a step forward tomorrow,”

“It is only practice, so tomorrow we’ll find out exactly where we are,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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38 comments on “Hamilton relieved Mercedes put testing “struggles” behind them”

  1. Congratulations to Mercedes for overcoming the massive “problems” they faced in pre season testing. Lewis has some serious patience, resilience and faith in this Mercedes squad. I think Alonso could really use some tips from Lewis in facing adversity.

    1. Truly an inspiration for everyone. /sarcasm
      #blessed

      1. That #blessed cracked me up, Ruben!

    2. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      24th March 2017, 7:41

      Lol

    3. Todfod

      That’s Gold.

    4. Hilarious. Lewis can be such a flog and really brings most of the teasing and haters on himself.

      1. As fans we view issues as relative to OTHER teams, however clearly Lewis is talking about where Mercedes wanted to be relative to their OWN performance expectations and standards. Even if these ‘struggles’ represent a tiny fraction of under-achievement vs their performance goals in testing they are still a ‘struggle’ to the team!! Irrespective of the relative performance of other teams! or lack of (McLaren).

        It’s hard for an average viewer/fan to really understand the mentality, motivation and thought process of elite achievers, regardless of whether this is individual or team. Time spent understanding elite performance gives a much deeper appreciation of how the thought process works – it is NOT the same as you or I!. Understanding that it’s actually no surprise Hamilton made these comments after a clean Friday!.

    5. @todfod I don’t see how you interpret “some issues” as “massive problems”

      1. @retardedf1sh
        Sorry for calling “struggling with some issues” as “problems”. I guess I took my exaggeration on that sarcastic comment too far.

    6. @todfod
      Pure 24 Karat Gold mate :) much better than other sarcastic posts we’ve seen here in a while

    7. Did you just read the headline, then post?

    8. I think Lewis persuaded the team to put less fuel in the car and take the rocks out.

      Kept forgetting that during preseason testing, but the team took a huge leap forward when
      they figured out what the problem was.

      1. Lewis has the perfect answer to how to respond to Alonso’s adversity. Rise to the
        challenge by switching to Mercedes. He speaks with the accumulated wisdom of experience.

  2. I’d like to know what he thinks McLaren’s situation is then… Because that is beyond struggling.

    Hamilton has certainly started 2017 perfectly.

  3. Testing struggles? Did they plan to do a 1000 laps more?

    1. In pre season testing, they didn’t top the time sheets while running their engine at 80%. Now they can!

      1. @todfod Luigi Hamilton: everyone is driving, me is cruising.

  4. Say what!?

  5. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
    24th March 2017, 8:00

    Bottas is well behind Hamilton. Looks like Rosberg was far better than many have him credit for. I just hope it’s not going to be a one car cruise to the title.

    1. @peppermint-lemon – Bottas was snoozing last season without a strong teammate to make him raise his game (a McLaren beat Massa!). Its somewhat like how Ricciardo said he felt he was delivering well with Vettel/Kvyat, and then Max came along and forced him to up his game.

      Give Bottas a little more time when he’s really up against Hamilton in quali and the race, and let’s them see if he shines or stumbles. Until now he’s only been “virtually” competing with Hamilton in the testing timesheets and simulator runs.

      PS: Not taking anything away from Rosberg.

      1. It’s going to take Bottas several full and complete race weekends to bed-in and then perform, comparison with Rosberg is unfair at the moment. Hamilton is picking up where he left off last season and this is Bottas’s first race weekend with his new team. Give him time, he has a very measured style, after two clean sessions let’s see how he pushes into Q3 and quali tomorrow and if he can narrow the gap.

      2. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
        24th March 2017, 13:39

        Yeah that’d fair enough – guess I’m hoping for too much too soon from Bottas (and the Ferrari’s). Fingers crossed he picks up the pace asap though.

        I know you weren’t- perhaps a Bottas/Rosberg comparison was also a little premature.

        I guess I was just hoping for “more” from F1 in general this year and a mix up of the “form book” from the outset.

    2. Yes, on the first practice day in his first race weekend for a new team, he is slower than his multiple championship winner teammate who’s been with Mercedes for years. Anything else would have been a miracle.

      Not saying that Bottas will end up being faster than Hamilton, but I’ve seen a lot of these “Well he isn’t faster than Lewis, game over” kind of of comments, and they make no sense to me.

      1. I’ll wait until qualifying and the race before making any conclusions but look at Hamilton coming into Mercedes in 2013, qualified half a second up on a team mate who’d been in the team for 3 years.

        I’m not expecting Bottas to emulate that, but it won’t be because I’m giving him a pass on account of being new, I just don’t expect he’s at that level.

        1. +1. Also look at Hamilton’s rookie year vs Alonso during his first couple of races.

    3. Probably the first objective comment I have seen you make regarding Hamilton and his team mates.

  6. we really didn’t know where we’d be

    No Lewis… EVERYONE knew where those Mercedes would be!

  7. Michael Brown (@)
    24th March 2017, 8:59

    Those were some heavy sandbags

  8. Another season of Mercedes (and especially Hamilton) dominance.

    So much for Ferrari being the favorites.

  9. Go Lewis go!

  10. The Blade Runner (@)
    24th March 2017, 9:26

    Mercedes should replace its current logo with a picture of a sandbag! LINK

  11. i have to admit i thought the ‘no more one horse race’ adverts from Sky after practice were quite funny.

  12. They are all probably still sandbagging, after the first practice they were still 0.1s off the lap record and 0.2 ahead of last years pole time on a relatively high downforce circuit where the gains are supposed to be the biggest. Then again maybe it’s just false hope as we really need a competitive WDC this year.

  13. I hope Mercedes can win the title again!

  14. Is this weekend going to see the most one-sided selection for Pole Sitter in F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship history?

  15. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    24th March 2017, 13:47

    If we get an emphatic, processional Hamilton victory I will take no pleasure in gloating somewhat. A technical formula that plays to the aero R&D might of a powerhouse team like Mercedes that removes the variable of tyre degradation from races is highly representative of Bernie-era logic: casual assumptions aiming for poorly defined objectives operating in a resolute vacuum of evidence.

    Let’s see how long car aesthetics and faster laptimes compensate for poor racing…

  16. Michael Brown (@)
    24th March 2017, 16:37

    They really struggled to do the most laps in testing

Comments are closed.