Lewis Hamilton says it’s great to finally be back in the seat of a Formula One car after a long winter season without driving.
The McLaren driver was behind the wheel of a modified MP4-25 to replicate similar downforce levels to that of the 2011 cars which won’t feature double-diffusers.
“It felt great to be back in the car. I haven’t been driving for a while, so it felt good to brush away the cobwebs, and I felt at home straight away.
“Even though we were using the 2010 car, we had quite a productive day. We were trying to replicate 2011 downforce levels on the old car – so it wasn’t 100 per cent accurate – but we still got a good understanding of the new Pirelli’s and covered quite a lot of ground.”
The Brit covered 83 laps on the new Pirelli tyres, but admitted they were degrading quicker than expected.
“The new tyres are easy to get a feel for; there’s not as much grip on the Pirelli’s as we had last year; they drop off quite a bit, too, and they’re a little bit harder to control over a longer stint – but it’s the same for everybody,” he added.
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