Lewis Hamilton has predicted the gap he feels Mercedes has to make up to Ferrari ahead of the new Formula 1 season.
The world champions have appeared largely on the back foot throughout pre-season testing and have only started showing a competitive pace since introducing a new upgrade during this second week.
On Friday morning, Valtteri Bottas would be a third of a second off the benchmark posted by Sebastian Vettel, but Hamilton, who is out on track this afternoon, believes even that is generous when indicating the real deficit.
“It’s potentially half a second, something like that,” he told the media in Barcelona.
While Friday is also the final test day before the first race in Australia on March 17, the Briton does expect work to continue to close up.
“We will be analysing a lot from this test and there will be some mods that we will try and implicate before the race," he explained.
“We don’t obviously have a lot of time, but over this week we will hopefully gain another tenth just with our understanding of the car.
“The car is kind of old now, it’s worn and torn, so we will have new components, all that stuff will come along.
“We really don’t know [the order] because everyone has different power modes and fuel loads, so Melbourne will be the first time you get a sight of it and it’s a good four races before you know just where you stand.”
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Having seen the consistent level of improvement his Mercedes team was able to produce last year though, Hamilton is sure they can get back on terms with Ferrari.
“The cars do have the potential to progress, so it’s really the work that we do,” Lewis claimed. “But I have confidence in the team to do the job.
"We’re the most united we’ve ever been. This is going to be the toughest battle yet, it’s exciting for all of you and all the fans.
“Ferrari’s pace is very, very good at the moment so the challenge is going to be harder than ever.”
