Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes sees tough competition from Ferrari and Red Bull this year and he expects that the two teams will give him a run for his money in the grand prix circuits once the racing season officially begins.
The British F1 driver clocked in at third during the second test in Barcelona on February 23 that was topped by Pastor Maldonado of Lotus followed by Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso.
Although both Ferrari and Red Bull did not make it to the top three in the most recent test in Barcelona, Hamilton still thinks that the two teams will be his serious competition.
He said the he is not sure how well Mercedes will fare this year but he will promises to give everyone a tough time.
Last year, Hamilton lorded over F1 racing competitions by winning the title with a total of 67 points.
He said that he has not been checking up on his competition during his test run but he did note that Maldonado was a bit quick during the second test. Hamilton averred that everyone in the test was on different tyres and also on different fuel loads, points out Yahoo! News.
The uncertainty adds excitement
Hamilton said that the uncertainty in the sports is what makes Formula One racing really exciting. He added that everyone in the sport will have a better understanding of who will be the players to watch after the next test scheduled next week.
The Formula One champion said that racing competition is similar to juggling blind because one never knows which ball would be coming first.
He added that he is really not sure what’s in store for the races this year but he is positive that the competition is going to be tougher than last year.
Tough luck on the test run
While most of the cars were smoothly okay during the second test run in Barcelona, it was not the same for the McLaren-Honda.
The car suffered yet again from a faulty seal on its MGU-K, one of its energy recovery systems. It was the same problem that the McLaren-Honda experienced in the test last week.
Apparently, a revised part was installed on the car before the test run but the part did not perform according to expectations so McLaren-Honda did the test with reduced power.
McLaren subsequently issued a statement citing that it has decided to bring back the car to their garage when they learned that it fed back MGU-K issues during the test, the same way it did during the February 19 test.
The team said that it will resume testing with limited power to the MGU-K. It also stated that a new and re-engineered seal will arrive and shall be installed later that evening.
Jenson Button, the driver of the McLaren-Honda, said that it was tough for him because he was almost in anger while driving the car. He admitted though that there were good indicators for the Melbourne race but he still needs to know what the car is capable of doing.