Brawn confident Hamilton will help Mercedes to move forwards

By Berthold Bouman

Mercedes Team Principal Ross Brawn is adamant his new star driver Lewis Hamilton will help the team to move forwards. The first two test days at Jerez were a disaster for the Silver Arrows team, as testing was halted after they had an electrical problem on Tuesday which caused a fire in the rear section of the W04, while Hamilton crashed the next day due to a rear brake failure.

But Brawn remains confident Hamilton will help his team to make the Mercedes W04 a success, “I think we’ve made it very clear to Lewis that he’s part of the solution. He’s part of the solution to get us where we want to be and he knows that and understands it and I think he’s relishing it.”

“He gives us reference points and helps us understand what we need to focus on … I welcome that approach. It needs to be constructive and it needs to be positive criticism of the right sort and that’s always helpful for the team to drive it forward,” Brawn added.

Lewis Hamilton testing at Jerez – Photo: Mercedes-Benz

Both Hamilton and his German team mate Nico Rosberg have worked hard during the last two days of pre-season testing in Jerez to provide the Mercedes engineers with the car data they so desperately need, Rosberg completed 148 laps on Thursday, and Hamilton completed 145 laps on Friday.

About the time they lost earlier this week Brawn commented, “We had some problems the first two days which were disappointing, but since then it’s been running well. We’ve been learning a lot about the car and about working with Lewis. It’s still very early in terms of understanding what he wants from a car perspective, and of course we’re at one circuit for one day. He’s clearly a person who enjoys being involved at all levels and that’s a great motivation for the team.”

Hamilton was pleased with the Mercedes W04, “We have some work to do but it doesn’t feel like a disaster. I feel like it’s a good platform, a good foundation to work on.”

And he said about his new team, “They are incredibly supportive. They just all want to do right by me. They were caring when I had the incident the other day and were concerned and they don’t really know me that well yet. So already I am building a bond with them and they are working flat-out which is good to see. There’s great motivation in the team.”