Lewis Hamilton claims he knew the "moment I drove" the W14 that Mercedes would be facing a challenging season. The team started off pre-season testing feeling encouraged by the progress made with the car which Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, described as "much calmer" than the W13. While it may be the case that Mercedes has cured the bouncing that was generated by porpoising and affected their handling in high speed corners, the car still has trouble getting into the right setup window. But Hamilton said curing the bouncing was the main priority for the team as it often masked the main setup problems. "I knew from the moment I drove the car where we were and the challenges that we would be facing," he told media, including RacingNews365.com . "On a positive, not having a bouncing issue is a huge, huge plus and trying to understand what the problem is whilst having bouncing really makes it difficult to figure out what those are - so we don't have that now."
Hamilton: We're not where we wanted to be at the start of a season
When asked if he shares the same 'bullish' attitude as his teammate George Russell, the seven-time World Champion replied that he "would not use those words for now." Hamilton continued to say the team is not where they want to be at the start of the season, but has belief they can turn things around. "Now we can focus on just pure performance and I'm encouraged to see just the focus and the courage of everyone within the team. They're so focused on getting us back to the top. "We're not where we wanted to be at the start of a season. But this is still a multi-Championship winning team and group of people so I believe in them."
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