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Lewis Hamilton has had his first taste of the Mercedes car that he hopes will make him Britain’s first four-time Formula One world champion this season.
The 31-year-old joined German team mate Nico Rosberg at a wintry Silverstone circuit last weekend for a filmed promotional day ahead of official pre-season testing that started in Barcelona on Monday.
The two were on fine form too as the car was unveiled in Spain with Hamilton as excited as ever, telling fans: “The best team in the world has built another beautiful beast for us – excited to get to work!”
Between them, the duo had already covered 98.2km in a session run behind closed doors. Under Formula One rules, teams are allowed to do a maximum of 100km outside official testing on designated filming days.
Rosberg, whose disappointment at finishing overall runner-up for the second year in a row was tempered by ending the season with three successive race wins, had first go in the F1 W07 hybrid and sounded positive.
“It was a good feeling to start with. I felt at home straight away. I could push as if I raced Abu Dhabi yesterday so a good beginning,” he told reporters, referring to last season’s final grand prix.
Mercedes won all but three races in 2015 and have been triumphant in 32 of the last 38.
“Everything has gone very well,” said technical head Paddy Lowe. “We haven’t even taken the engine cover off yet in the whole morning session which is a really good sign of the reliability that we’ve achieved at this point.”
He said the latest specification engine, even without running at full throttle, was ‘a little bit louder’ than last year’s.
Ferrari, who first presented their new car online on Friday, closed the gap last year and Lowe said the Italian team would again be pushing them hard.
“We see them as our main threat coming out of where all the teams were last year,” he said. “It remains to be seen how we position ourselves in the weeks to come.
“Ferrari definitely are a very strong competitor and one we worry about. It keeps us motivated to keep pushing all the time.”
Hamilton was in the new car on the first and third days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Rosberg driving yesterday and tomorrow. The running order is the reverse of last year’s opening test.
McLaren, partly-owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, unveiled their new Formula One car last Sunday, certain it cannot be any worse than last year’s but still unsure when they might get back to winning ways after their longest drought in decades.
The former champions have not won a race since 2012 and finished last season, the first of a new partnership with Honda, ninth of the 10 teams with just 27 points compared to 703 for dominant Mercedes.
The three years without a win is the team’s longest barren stretch since their absence from the top step of the podium in 1994-96.
“As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose. That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition … to win,” said McLaren boss Ron Dennis. “We’ll make no predictions as to when those wins will come,” he added.
The new MP4-31 short-nosed car, described by the team as innovative, also made a first track appearance with Jenson Button at the wheel at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.
Last year was fraught with problems for McLaren, with the Honda engine lacking power and suffering from chronic unreliability. The Japanese manufacturer has had to face mounting speculation already this year about the power unit, with some suggesting it has found dramatic gains over the winter and others reporting fresh reliability concerns.
Spaniard driver Fernando Alonso missed that race last year, suffering concussion after a testing crash in Barcelona, but the double world champion said he was excited and raring to go for the tests and the new season.
