New 2019 Mercedes "quite different," says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says the new 2019 Mercedes represents a radical change from the car championship winner last year, after a defeatless start to his title defense.

Hamilton got his first spell on track at the W10 on Monday. He shared driving duties with his teammate Valtteri Bottas during the first day of official pre-season testing on the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit in Spain.

"It's a little different from last year," said Hamilton after the end of the afternoon runway activity.

"We are starting to know," he added. "Try to understand the balance and try to understand the characteristics with which one works.

"It's good to be back in the car and see that the car is running as well as it is."

Neither Bottas nor Hamilton worked on performance speed races and were two seconds behind the fastest time of the day by Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.

"Today, the pace was not absolute," said James Allison, Mercedes' technical director. "We are reasonably satisfied with the behavior of the car and its behavior."

Indeed, Hamilton and Bottas drove 150 laps in the car, which was not far removed from Vettel's impressive number of full days (169) and far outshot Red Bull, who was the next best after 128 laps. .

Allison said the day had been "no problem" for the team.

"We managed to do a lot of things on this first day of racing," he said. "Discover both how the 2019 tires work and learn how the car responds to configuration changes

"The first day was positive," Hamilton agreed. "We have finished our race plan and we have a lot to learn about the new car we are going to work on."

Bottas was also satisfied with his passing in the new car before lunch.

"I really enjoyed this morning," he said. "I did 69 laps and the car was not a major problem, so it was a relatively successful race.

"It proves that the whole team is doing a great job, in Brackley and Brixworth, but also here on the track."

"As the car is new, we immediately found ways to improve balance and behavior and we will continue to work on that in the coming days."

Both drivers will continue to take turns in the cockpit for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, it will be Hamilton's turn to run first, followed by Bottas in the afternoon.

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