Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time on the final day of the test in Barcelona, although it was a very cool day with intermittent rain and no fewer than seven red flag incidents as drivers either had problems or went off the road. Hamilton’s best was a 1m23.282s after a total of just 52 laps. This time was considerably slower than the best lap time of the week, a 1m21.848s set by Sergio Perez on Wednesday.
Jenson Button was second fastest in the McLaren with a lap of 1m23.633s after completing a total of 70 laps, while Jean-Eric Vergne was third quickest in his Toro Rosso with a lap of 1m24.071s after 80 laps of running.
Jules Bianchi’s 1m25.732s in the Force India after 61 laps was the next best offering of the day, ahead of Esteban Gutierrez’s 1m26.239s lap, although the Mexican did a total of 96 laps. Giedo Van der Garde’s Caterham was next, recording a best of 1m27.429s after 50 laps, ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, which did 80 laps but went no faster than 1m27.563s.
Mark Webber was eighth overall in the Red Bull, with a best of 1m27.616s after 64 laps while Max Chilton was next with a 1m29.902s after 51 laps. Romain Grosjean recorded a meaningless 1m34.800s after 41 laps, while Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado both ran for Williams, although neither set a single lap time.
joeblogsf1 
Come on Lewis…
It would be good to see Lewis pick Mercedes up and run with them, he looks to have fingered the lack of downforce already, and his years at McLaren seem to have given him a fair knowledge of the car’s requirements to suit his own driving style.
Everyone is being very cautious about Mercedes’ prospects, but they may surprise us all yet.
It’s conjecture on my part but I’d be surprised if Merc can suddenly be front runners based on last year’s efforts – maybe next year? Hope they can but…. My money’s on the usual group including Lotus. Should be interesting to see if Sauber or Williams challenge up front – could be a good year for close racing though.
Absolutely no disrespect to Lewis but his notice that the car lacks downforce is not some magical set up skill – it’s what anyone who drives a formula 1 car says – needs more downforce. The only thing he can bring is a general comparison between last years mclaren and this years Mercedes – although nico pointed out the imbalance without the experience of another team.
The Mercedes will have done fantastically well if its back to only half a second behind the leaders. That would be a genuine engineering miracle. If they are the SAME pace as the leaders it’s a boost the likes of which only the 2009 Brawn achieved in recent memory.
Lewis is probably managing expectations saying they’ll fight for points – but I think he’s honest when he says wins are unlikely. The merc only won last year whilst the red bull was in a bit of a mess and the Ferrari was miles behind and it rapidly went downhill from there.
Sandbagging. Not to say its a fantastic car but it would stand to reason that its an improvement on last year in relation to top teams. I would speculate that of the top teams with resources for example sake Mercedes is looking for the last 10 percent of performance vs. 3 percent, so easier to show a gain against the others.
It makes sense for Lewis to down play expectations only to show the world how exceptional he is when he overcomes these challenges. It’s almost like a reality t.v plot line where the underdog shines through, who manages this guy again? Mr I just dusted off another commoner and found a diamond in the rough.
Please don’t spoon feed us F1 Mr Fuller, it may work for the masses they are going after though.
I know it;s unlikely and being played down a lot, but if Lewis does manage to drag that car to the front of the grid in Australia, just how many people will have to eat their words?
No-one.
We are all gifted with the 20/20 vision of hindsight based on foresight informed by 1/20th of the available data. That’s the game we enjoy playing.
As Hillary would say, “what difference does it make!”
About the same number that thought Jenson would be annihilated when he joined Lewis at Mclaren.
Some would say that he was.
Thats a pretty full on statement Joe. From an outsiders perspective I thought the feeling in the paddock was that whilst Jenson had been out qualified, and that Lewis had been unlucky reliability wise, JB had stood up far better than expected and McLaren had been moulded around him far more than expected.
Yes, but does Jenson produce the same kind of magic as Lewis did?
No you are right. Jenson has his moments of magic, but Lewis has far more. Just thought annihilated was too far…
What does it matter? If jenson wins another WDC before Lewis there might be less magic but it will still be a championship. Lewis may excite you but to say he annihilated jenson is hyperbole and fanboy-ism.
Interesting comment Mr Saward!
Unless I’ve missed it I assume you’re not yet ready to comment on Sutil’s (potential) drive for Force India? Looks like it’s done and dusted reading what Jakob Andreasen had to say.
If a team wants to be represented by such a driver that is there choice. If I was a team owner I would pick someone else, but we all have different views I guess.
And they’d be wrong, by any objective measure. Annihilated is Michael Andretti vs Senna or Kovalainen vs Hamilton. Or anybody other than Schumacher driving a Benetton B194. Odd, that….
Beaten on the whole, over the three years, absolutely. But not annihilated.
I don’t think Lewis has either the personality or the maturity to take charge at Mercedes as Schumacher did with Ferrari. He (Lewis) needs to grow up. Yes, he’s fast, but as far as pulling the team together and driving them forward ………not so much.
If Schumacher was that great, how come he didnt manage to do it with Mercedes in the past 3 years.. Don’t say its because he was old… He joined ferrari at the right time and only time will tell if lewis joined Mercedes at the right time..
No driver can make a car faster, that’s the job of the engineers, the only thing he can do is give feedback, and with his 5 years driving experience at mclaren, i think he better at telling Mercedes engineers that their car is no way, close to how a fast current f1 car feels like, than both shumi or rosberg…
Sure, Lewis can tell Mercedes “…that their car is no way, close to how a fast current F1 car feels like….” But so what? They already know it. I didn’t like Schumacher as a driver, especially the intimidation tactics he used, but he got Ferrari behind him, drove all the testing miles, developed the car and won races, pulling the team with him. I can’t see Lewis doing that. And, Schumacher WAS too old – there, I said it!
I think Lewis is a fast and good driver, I just don’t see the personality or commitment that a great driver needs. And while I’m on the subject, I certainly have gotten tired of hearing Button’s complaining radio messages; just dig in and do it and stop whining.
Schumacher was made famous for testing, always. It’s hard for a man used to fine tune a car infinitesimally over thousands of miles to make himself justice in a Formula 1 format that has transformed testing into press covered PR stunts.
That and maybe he lost his spark as well, as people tend to do when they get older and “wiser”.
Some would argue that point.
The engineers brought into Mercedes will do that more. Lewis is not much of a set up expert. The failures for Schumacher and rosberg are going to mostly be budget related. If merc are ploughing more in now they will develop faster and Lewis will have a chance to do what he does best – race hard.
Im not sure it is that easy.
If unlimited testing had been allowed during Schumacher’s time at Mercedes, like it was when he was with Ferrari, I would be willing to bet the story would have been rather different.
Yes, and if your aunt had balls, she’d be your uncle… She didn’t, so she wasn’t.
What did Schumacher ever do to you?
I think the times on this day said very little about their Melbourne pace. Williams only did pit stops, for instance (maybe wise, seeing Maldonado’s reputation).
And much as I would like to see Hamilton at the front, they’ll have a long way to go, I think.