Lewis Hamilton finished the last test day in second place, three tenths behind Sergio Perez, but it was not an easy closing session.
During his timed lap runs, the Mercedes W14 was quite twitchy on the exit of turns, as he battled to match the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari on the tougher compound tyres.
He ultimately found pace on the softer C3 and C4 compounds to finish second, but despite his early optimism, Hamilton confessed that some of the W13’s “balance restrictions” are still there in their 2023 rival.
“Some of the balancing issues that we had last year are still present, so we’ve been working through them,” he told RacingNews365.com.
“I’m incredibly happy of everyone on the team for being optimistic after a difficult year last year and the incredible effort done during the winter for us to arrive and have the mileage that we’ve had.”
