Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Wolff hails ‘best’ first day

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Toto Wolff admits he is delighted with the start to Mercedes’ pre-season testing program, describing it as the “best” first day.

Nico Rosberg completed over 150 laps in the new W06 as Mercedes managed more than double the amount of mileage than any other team. With such smooth running on the opening day at Jerez, team boss Wolff conceded that he couldn’t have foreseen it going so well.

“I don’t want to sound overconfident, we need to stay humble, [but] it was a really good first day,” Wolff said. “For me it was the best one that I’ve seen in terms of mileage and reliability. Of course we didn’t push the limits in terms of the car and its systems but for a first day indeed it was very solid.

“If you speak to Nico he says it’s one of the best first days he’s had. Does it mean a lot? No, but it’s better to have a good first day than a bad one.”

Rosberg himself said his lap count was aided by having a car which handled well from the start of the day,

“I can just say that I have a good feeling,” Rosberg said. “There’s no reason for it, there’s no numbers for it today, it’s just feeling and I can just say I have a good feeling. It’s been a reliable day, no major problems, the car balance feels more or less decent. Of course it’s not perfect so there’s still some work to do and I look forward to that work, starting tonight to try and improve the car already for tomorrow and then optimise it further for my second day. So just a good feeling.”

Click here for the full gallery of the first day of testing at Jerez

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.