Hamilton does his first laps in a Mercedes

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Lewis Hamilton has got behind the wheel of a Mercedes for the first time during a filming day at the Jerez circuit.

Hamilton drove the W04 which was officially launched earlier today.

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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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37 comments on “Hamilton does his first laps in a Mercedes”

  1. looking good!

  2. That cockpit looks snug!

  3. I must say, the new helmet looks better in the cockpit.

  4. We need a competitive Mercedes so bad!

    1. @jcost Couldn’t agree more! They’ve been so disappointing.

  5. I’m afraid that it’s going to be very hard to tell him and Rosberg apart at speed with a quick glance.

    1. No prob, Lewis will be the one in front !!

      1. Haha! Like.

    2. A lot of people have mentioned this, not really sure why people expected either to change helmets but it’ll certainly be confusing next year.

      Rather than coloured cameras we need proper numbers back, big numbers. I know sponsors are much more important than they used to be but seriously, look at that gap on the front nose and on the wing end plate, stick a massive number 10 there and we’d all be fine.

      If you look at Indy Car they’re doing it right, F1 needs to do the same if they really want the fans to know which driver is which, enforce some kind of rule for number sizing.

      1. Yep, or on the side behind the driver’s head.
        The one on top of the nose is crazy, why put it where only the onboard camera can see it? There’ll be a TV caption saying “HAMILTON” anyway.

        There are fewer sponsors around these days, so there’s always room for bigger car numbers.

      2. @tommyb89
        I agree.
        The IndyCar system is much better!

      3. @tommyb89 Well MIG Bank doesn’t seem to be taking up much space on the rear wing. SLR-722-sized numbers will fit in there nicely.

    3. The top T was yellow and redish last year that help

    4. @meander I don’t are it being a problem. They’re both different shades of yellow and look different.

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    4th February 2013, 15:32

    About the helmet, it looks like any of them is going to give up the yellow so easily!!! The car looks good, looks fast… just as all the other Mercedes in the previous years, they just “look” fast

    1. Amen! Mr. Pepper. The car looks awkward probably because of the new Pirelli….. who knows if they got it right and the others have to adjust to their style? Melbourne will tell I suppose. Can’t wait.

  7. I have read Gay Anderson talking rubbish about the car already, i have the impression these folks want see Lewis fail so hard unbelievable

    1. Anderson was talking rubbish about Mclaren before last season. Yeah, the car that, but for operational errors, would have dominated

  8. William Brierty
    4th February 2013, 16:11

    So above we see a picture of Lewis Hamilton in a yellow helmet, black and white gloves and white(ish) overalls driving a silver car very quickly. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve seen that somewhere before.

    1. Lewis Hamilton in F3 if I’m not wrong

  9. Good job Murray is retired. Every race would be “unless I’m very much mistaken… Is that Lewis, er no, it’s nico, no sorry it’s Hamilton, no no it’s rosberg, oh hang on its, oh for the love of god, it’s a Mercedes currently in 5th”

  10. strange that hamilton would change his helmet to look more like rosbergs than it did before :S

    1. It’s all a cunning ploy by the Germans… At the end of the season when one of the drivers needs the points whichever is at the front can claim the points for the one who needs them most.

      It’ll be like Spartacus… “I’m Lewis Hamilton!”

      1. +1 …. LOL

        How come Ferrari did not improvise this yet ? They must be doing this from the start of the season for Alonso.

  11. Yes what’s with the helmet well just have to take it that Lewis will be in front what a beautiful looking car. If it does do what it look like we re in for some great surprises hell race the wheels f that car. By the way lew the outfit looks great on you. Your the greatest out there no one to match you.

  12. Nice to see he matched his helmet with his tyres :) Nicole would be impressed :P

  13. Im a Ferrari fan and i always support the red drivers, but i wish for Hamilton the best. I hope he and Alonso will battle for WDC in the upcoming years because they are the best and drives both legendary cars.

    I hope that by 2015 or 2016 the dream come true…Hamilton in Ferrari..teams up with Alonso, we will see great years then.

    1. I think you will have to be disappointed on that front. On every page of Alonso Contract the First line reads as follows….

      “As long as I am in this team Lewis, Vettel or any other driver faster than me cannot join this team …. I have had enuf in 2007… “

  14. It looks like the car had botched nose job with a second rate plastic surgeon.

    1. Ditto. The car looks less bad in the other shots, but in the main shot on this page it does look awful.

  15. I don’t see anything on that Mercedes, which causes me to be optimistic for Lewis or Rosberg. It looks like last years Merc, with a little evolution, but even less evolution than on the other cars we have seen so far, from both Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren. If You compare the size of the rear of the car, when looking at it from the side, it seems much higher and larger than the others. So I don’t see Mercedes in the battle between the 3 front running teams, yet.

  16. I heard car stop in track when lewis drove it, run out of fuel or ….

    1. This is pretty normal in testing and installation laps and is mostly deliberate, also very common on filming which I believe is all they were doing today.

  17. Great coverage as ever @keithcollantine – beating Sky and the Beeb to getting the first photos up too!

  18. the car looks like a plane ready to take off.. its seems to be squating on its mid section and facing upwards!!! this is dangerous!!

  19. I would imagine they’ll have some extra flashings on the car or something if the drivers helmets are so similar come round 1. Admittedly Hamiltons is a more orange shade of yellow, but still, its not an easy call.

    Fair play to them both for sticking with their traditions though.

  20. Somehow i Did not like the Livery of the car. Mercedes could have done a better job. The Petronas color is finding it difficult to blend in with the Silver color.

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