Lewis Hamilton Completes Four Days of F1 W04 Testing

Lewis Hamilton completed the fourth and final day of the first winter test in Jerez, Spain as a member of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS team. After running only 15 laps on his first day in the car and after a few minor hiccups, Lewis managed to complete a total of 145 laps today and has familiarised himself with the new F1 W04.

• Lewis’ running this morning concentrated on set-up changes as he familiarised himself with the car

• Following a delay to repair the track surface at Turn 5, Lewis focused on completing a race distance

• This was successfully completed during the afternoon with further valuable miles put on the new car

• Lewis and Nico completed a combined total of 1426 km over the four days of testing in Jerez

• MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS will resume testing on Tuesday 19 February in Barcelona.

Lewis Hamilton

Today we managed the kind of mileage that the car is capable of and I think we have a good platform to start working from. Now we need to understand the F1 W04 even more: personally, I am learning something with every lap I do and every change I make to the set-up. Overall, I think we are probably at the level we would have hoped to be. The team has done a great job to add downforce to the car over the winter and they now need Nico and me to tell them where we can improve and the direction we need to go. Everybody has been incredibly supportive and I am really building a good bond with the team; they feel energised, ready to go and everybody is working flat out to move us forward.

Ross Brawn

After a difficult first half of the test, the last two days have really been as good as we could have hoped for. Nico is probably best placed to compare between last year’s car and the new F1 W04 and he seems pretty enthusiastic, but it is hard to have any reliable feeling of where we stand relative to the competition. Lewis had a very constructive day today as he settled in to the car; he has been very straightforward in telling us what he thinks, is interested in everything about the car and has a very good eye for detail. Overall, the step we have to make from where we were at the end of last year is substantial and it is also, of course, a moving target. But looking at the team as a whole, I can see very encouraging signs of progress.

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