Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes did not conceal its true pace on the final day of winter testing as rivals Ferrari stormed to the top of the timings.
Kimi Raikkonen’s mightily-impressive 1m18.634s was comfortably the fastest lap of the eight days’ running and saw the Finn finish eight tenths clear of the chasing pack.
The Scuderia has seemingly leapfrogged Red Bull over the winter to emerge as Mercedes’ closest challengers, combining headline-grabbing lap times with strong mileage at Barcelona.
Hamilton, meanwhile, could muster only a 1m19.850s, 1.2 seconds slower than Raikkonen, and he concedes he could go no faster.
“Every year in testing the goal is not necessarily to go as quick as you can, it’s to find out what you have in the car,” the three-time world champion said.
“Potentially some teams sandbagging in the past, but I don’t really see that as being a benefit to any team.
“Driving today, the time you saw was the time we could do. I didn’t feel when I got out that I could have gone faster. But of course there are all sort of things that come into play to bring the time down, such as fuel loads, engine modes, those kind of things.
“The great thing is no one really knows. It looks very positive for Ferrari, that’s for sure, and I don’t think that’s bluff. I think that’s true. They’ve done a great job.”
Hamilton also revealed he is yet to find the ‘sweet spot’ with the W08, confessing that Ferrari may well have the upper hand at this stage.
“I haven’t got it into a good window yet,” he told Autosport. “I don’t know if it can go as fast as them. I really don’t. We will find out. We hope we can.”
All will be revealed when the new season officially gets under way in Melbourne in a fortnight’s time.
