The German manufacturer has made improvements to its car this year in hopes of addressing the apparent weakness that has plagued Hamilton and teammate George Russell throughout 2023.
While the early run of the W15 seems to indicate that the Mercedes 2024 challenger has changed a number of shortcomings – including a "malicious" backend – Hamilton says it is not there when it comes to speed.
We know we still have work to do, but we're not there yet," Hamilton said. "We know that happens when we test.
We have a great platform to continue to grow. We will be working hard over the next few days to check all the data from the test. I'm very excited about the start of the season next week and we will go into the season in good shape. ”
Russell said there is no doubt that Mercedes is still leading the way with the RB20's impressive speed, but he feels his team is much better than it was 12 months ago. "The car handled well and related to how we felt on the simulator before we came here," he said. "We have a very good foundation to build.
We know there's more lap time to look for. We knew this was going to be the case before the test, and Red Bull looked very strong again.
Still, I believe we are in a much better position now than we were 12 months ago. The team at Blakeley and Brixworth did a fantastic job getting us to where we were and launching a car that was going in the right direction.
We now need to focus on first getting the most out of our existing kit, and secondly adding more downforce and trying to close that gap. ”
Mercedes Circuit Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin said early signs of testing were that the W15 had improved a lot in the key areas the team wanted to address.
The team has been working hard to address the handling flaws inherent in the W14 and it's great that we seem to have put some of the issues behind us," he said.
During the test, we made good progress in our understanding of the car. The task for the next few days is to pick the results and sort out the best plan for the weekend.
It's never easy to get speed through testing, as all teams can effectively hide their speed when needed. It's clear that we're in a much better position than we were 12 months ago. ”