Lewis Hamilton was like a kid before Christmas as he talked up the upgrades Mercedes have brought to the Austrian Grand Prix.
Having already introduced the Phase 2.1 engine last week at Paul Ricard, this week it’s the W09 itself that has been given a revised look thanks to new sidepods, bargeboards, rear wing endplates and, controversially, mirror supports.
Why it’s controversial is because Ferrari had an albeit much more extreme concept banned after the Spanish Grand Prix, when they were the first team to use Halo-mounted mirrors, but Mercedes has managed to incorporate their support into the bargeboard package.
Already, the improvements seem to be working, with Hamilton and Bottas topping Practice 1, and on Thursday the world champion was particularly enthusiastic.
“Up until now we’ve not really had a lot of development parts on the car, so it’s great to see,” he said.
“I’m aware that the guys have been working increasingly harder to try and make sure that we bring quality rather than quantity. So it’s great to see some new bits here this weekend, and I’m excited to try them on track.
“It will undoubtedly help us in our battle to frighten the other guys.”
Hamilton also explained it wouldn’t take long to see what impact the new parts have on the performance.
“You feel the first couple of points [of downforce] straight away in a certain corner, you feel those improvements,” he claimed. “I’m looking forward to experiencing it, and trying to figure out where those improvements are on the circuit.
“I’ve not really looked at the pieces, and only got told about it this morning. They mentioned it to me ages ago, but I don’t really think about that stuff, I only think about how I can get the car in the right ballpark so I [can] do what I do.
“But hopefully that will help me do it more.”
