F1: I’ve Still Got A Lot To Learn, Says Hamilton

Formula 1

F1: I’ve Still Got A Lot To Learn, Says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton continues adjusting to life at Mercedes...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 08, 2013 Jerez (ESP)

New Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stands by in Jerez. (Photo: Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a much better day for Mercedes in Jerez on Friday, running 59 laps in the morning before more than doubling that total by the end of the day.

Hamilton said that overall he was happy with progress, but admitted that personally he still had to lot to learn about both the car and the Mercedes team.

“It’s not a bad place for us to start. We definitely need to work and understand the car more,” he said during the break. “There’s a huge amount of work for me to fully understand – I need to do a lot of studying before I fully understand the car before the season.

“Every lap that I drive it I’m learning. Every change that we make, I’m learning. Every time I refer to a setup change, I’m learning. But it’s going to take some time.

“I think we’re at the level we would have hoped to have been. I couldn’t really ask for more. The guys have done a great job to add downforce to the car and understand where they’ve been and take the car in the direction that they really want it to go.

“And now they need direction, they need me and Nico (Rosberg, teammate) to tell them where we can improve the car, and which direction to go. Is it front end that we need to improve, or is it rear end? Is it globally, is it corner entry, is it exits? All this kind of thing we are working on.”

Asked if he was clear on what that the direction was, he said: “I wouldn’t say I was clear, but in time with more testing I think I’ll become more clear.”

Hamilton admitted that he has no idea what the overall pecking order is for 2013.

“I’ve asked the guys to try and predict it, but they don’t know," he said. "We don’t know what fuel loads people are running, so it would be a guess.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.