Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell believe the W14 “feels more competitive” at Zandvoort after being encouraged by its performance on Friday.
Hamilton finished the second session in fourth place, behind Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Alex Albon, while Russell was down in 14th spot.
However both drivers were lifted by the feel of the W14 from the outset around Zandvoort.
“That was a great day for me,” said Hamilton. “I woke up this morning so excited to get back in the car, and from the first lap it felt like we had a good starting point to work from.
“The first practice session was generally good; we made some changes for FP2, and I’m not sure if we progressed or not from them, so we will deep dive tonight to investigate.
“Overall, the car is feeling more competitive here, so we want to hold onto that and see if we can extract more for tomorrow.”
Russell added that “it’s feeling good out there: the race pace was looking strong, and there is plenty of potential in there for qualifying as well, even if it didn’t quite show in the headline times for me today.
“Definitely this was one of our better Fridays and I’m optimistic for the rest of the weekend.”
