Lewis Hamilton’s lukewarm verdict to Mercedes W15: ‘A good foundation to build on’

Lewis Hamilton has labelled the Mercedes W15 F1 car as a “good foundation to build on” after a full day of running in Bahrain.

Hamilton was in action for Mercedes on day two of pre-season testing, completing 123 laps.

The seven-time world champion set the third-fastest time of the day, on the C3 tyre, with his best effort 1.1s off the pace.

Reflecting on his first day in the car, Hamilton described the W15 as “much nicer to drive” compared to its predecessor.

"It was a productive day out there," Hamiton said. "We gathered lots of learnings about the W15, both in our long running and single lap work.

"We've clearly made an improvement with this year's car and it's much nicer to drive.

"A big thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth for the efforts they've put in to deliver that over the past year. I'm really grateful for all their hard work.”

Hamilton was 0.4s shy of Sergio Perez, who also set his best time on the C3 tyre.

The Ferrari-bound driver believes the W15 is a “good foundation to build on” with further progress required ahead of the season-opener.

"We've still got progress to make of course. But this is a good foundation for us to build on,” he added.

"We'll keep our heads down and continue to work to find improvements, both over the rest of the test and into next week.

"I'm looking forward to being back in the car tomorrow morning and continuing that learning."