Lewis Hamilton believes the significant input from himself and Valtteri Bottas means the 2018 Mercedes “irons out the creases” of its predecessor.
Unveiled at a shakedown and launch event at Silverstone, the new W09 on the surface looks almost identical to the machine which won both championships last year despite being considered a “diva” for its unpredictability.
However, with an overhauled engine and minor changes such as an increase in the rake angle, a design feature Red Bull has pioneered by raising the back of the car, the world champion believes it will be a much better package.
“I’m really hopeful that this year we’ve ironed out a lot of the creases. There’s a different aerodynamic characteristic this year compared to last year,” he told the media gathered at the British racetrack.
“We’ve taken some of the good from last year, but there were circuits that we went to where we weren’t that strong, so hopefully we’ve found a compromise which will favour a majority of the Grand Prix circuits.”
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The 33-year-old also talked up the joint effort by himself and his teammate Bottas into identifying and solving the weaknesses.
“It’s a car that we both pushed and developed through the year last year,” he claimed. “So what we see today is an evolution of both of our driving DNA fused into one and that can only bode well for the team.”
Hamilton was keen to emphasise it’s a car that still very much suits him, however: “It’s definitely not moved away from me. I’m very, very close to my engineers, so I’m very much on top of that,” he added.
Thursday was the first time the Briton has seen the W09 completed in the flesh and though Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff reiterated a desire to take a “chainsaw” to the Halo, Hamilton, who described last year’s season finale as the “last race with good looking cars”, seemed content.
“It’s a work of art and it’s really just incredible to see,” he stated. “I just walked into the garage now and they took the cover off and I was staring at it. How did they do that?”
