Lewis Hamilton was left gushing over his new Mercedes after completing a filming day at Silverstone on Wednesday.
Ahead of pre-season testing which begins next Monday, the Briton gained an early feel for the W10, a car he hopes can take him to a sixth Formula 1 championship.
And offering an initial assessment of his 2019 ride, it appears Valentine’s Day came early for Hamilton.
“It was a great first date, probably one of the best ones that we’ve had in all these years,” he declared.
Much of his praise was reserved for his Mercedes team, however, as he hailed the work done to get the W10 ready.
“What has been most impressive is seeing the car coming together last night, which is always impressive to see, and then to see how smooth today has gone,” Lewis explained.
“There are things we can continue to work on, but so many people worked tirelessly to pull this car together, and to see it come to the test and go out, get through the programme we needed to and get the filming done is great.
“For me, it is crazy, because I have been racing a long long time, it’s my seventh year with the team, but the excitement I had today was the same I had when I first got in an F1 car, which is really weird and I was not expecting that.”
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The honour of turning the first laps in the 2019 Mercedes, however, went to Valtteri Bottas…
“Being the first ever to drive a new Formula 1 car is very cool,” the Finn said. “I feel very privileged and it was nice to get a bit of a feel.
“It was a shakedown, so it is not a proper test, but everything was working fine already. We have found some things we can improve for the testing, and found some positives.”