Lewis Hamilton: “Difficult to say a lot about the W09”

Pure performance was not yet a question yesterday in Barcelona for the opening of the 2018 winter tests. In cool temperatures, and a track made slippery by the arrival of rain in the afternoon, the teams mainly sought to accumulate tricks.

Long in the lead in the morning, Valtteri Bottas let Daniel Ricciardo (Aston Martin Red Bull) conclude with the best time of the day, before giving way to the world champion Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon.

The Finn admits not having really attacked, with the focus placed on continuing the development program. “The main mission for the morning was collect aerodynamic data, so I did runs at constant speeds, Bottas explains.

I also did a few laps for myself, but that kind of riding was very limited. We didn't do any performance runs, so I haven't pushed the W09 to its limits yet. »

Same echo for Lewis Hamilton, whose afternoon session was even more disrupted by the weather and track conditions. « It was difficult to get the tires up to temperature. They didn't really work, so I couldn't get any feeling.
 
I didn't really have the opportunity to push in the car and reach significant speeds because the conditions were very bad. It is me hard to say much about the car because i haven't driven it for a long time, but the initial feeling is good. »