Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton: Preparations better than 2014

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ preparations for the 2015 season have been better than their dominant 2014 campaign.

Mercedes started pre-season testing by completing over 150 laps on the opening day and is the team which has completed the most mileage so far this year. Despite being limited to 48 laps on Thursday by an MGU-K issue, Hamilton says the team has improved on how it approached the start of last season.

“The team has been amazing so the preparation and steps we’ve taken for this year is even better than what we did last year,” Hamilton said. “What we learned from last year we’ve really applied to this year. There’s still things that we’re learning along the way and we can improve I’m sure that in the coming days we will improve but the good thing is that we’re always moving forward.”

Hamilton was in philosophical mood after his curtailed day at the Circuit de Catalunya, saying he was still happy that the team was able to discover problems during testing.

“I don’t really see it as being too much of a negative. It’s good that you find these things; whatever issues it is it’s good that you find them because you want them now and you don’t find it at the first race, hopefully. Naturally the more that you drive the more you feel comfortable but after the 50 laps that I did today I was like ‘I’m ready to go’.

“There’s a few small things that were new but the team has been working hard to make improvements and I certainly felt them.”

Full times and day one of the final test as it happened

Click here for the gallery from day one of the final test

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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.