Hamilton cautiously satisfied with Mercedes W15: 'This car drives better'

Lewis Hamilton made his first miles in the winter test in Bahrain on Thursday. The Briton sees it as a positive start to his final Formula 1 season with Mercedes and says the W15 drives "much more pleasantly" than its predecessor.

Hamilton took the entire Thursday, after teammate George Russell did the same a day earlier. He is cautiously satisfied with his first experience with the 2024 F1 car. "It was a productive day out there. We gathered lots of learnings about the W15, both in our long running and single lap work," he said after the afternoon session.

"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," he adds.

He does add a caveat: "We've still got progress to make of course. But this is a good foundation for us to build on. 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."