Lewis Hamilton is refusing to make any bold predictions despite setting a blistering pace on the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. The Briton was seven tenths clear of the rest of the field after setting the fastest lap time of either Catalunya test but he doesn’t think all teams have shown their hand yet, putting his advantage into perspective.
“It was great to have a dry track today for my final day of testing, and we were able to get through all the test items that we wanted to achieve by the end of my programme. There’s still a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we want to be but the team is doing a great job. The guys are working so hard at the factory and here at the track; it’s been really nice to get to know everyone in the garage and how they work together over the past few weeks. The reliability, the mileage and the step-by-step improvements that we have achieved during the three tests are all very encouraging. Whilst we’ve been focusing on our own performance, we definitely haven’t seen the full potential of our competitors yet, so it’s difficult to predict where we might be.”
Nico Rosberg takes over the Mercedes W04 tomorrow meaning Hamilton won’t see any more track action before Melbourne but that doesn’t mean the hard work stops for the 2008 world champion.
“I’ll be back at the factory next week doing some final preparation work on the simulator and with my engineers, and then it’s off to Melbourne for the first race of the new season with my new team”.
