Lewis Hamilton will start a new stage in his career next weekend as he, for the first time, will line up on the starting grid in an F1 car which isn’t a McLaren.
The 2008 champion says he “can’t wait” to begin the new chapter in his life with the Brackley based outfit and to find out where they rank among their rivals.
“It’s the start of a new season and the beginning of a new adventure for me with Mercedes,” he said. “I can’t wait to get to Melbourne, get out on track and find out where we stand.
“The Australian Grand Prix is always an exciting race: the teams don’t know how they compare in terms of performance, the fans are fantastic and, with big changes to the tyres again this year, we just don’t know what will happen in the race.
“We had a good, reliable car during winter testing so that’s the positive we can take with us into the weekend but we know that in terms of performance, everything begins again from zero in Friday practice. So let’s get Down Under, get racing and see how things turn out.”
Team-mate Nico Rosberg also highlighted the new tyres as a potential area to excel or fall down, as well as the higher temperatures which are an unknown for all the teams.
“The first Grand Prix is where everyone finds out where they really are and we can judge how well we have done against our competition as the times in winter testing just don’t tell the full story.
“The weather in Melbourne looks very hot at the moment which is going to be a tough challenge as we have no experience with the F1 W04 in those conditions,” he explained.
“Tyre degradation will be the biggest issue for everyone so we need to look at that carefully and do a good job in managing it.”
