Lewis Hamilton bullish amid Mercedes' testing setbacks

A crash caused by rear brake failure at Jerez on Wednesday meant Hamilton was only able to complete 15 laps, just a day after team-mate Nico Rosberg was only able to do a similar number before being stopped by an electrical issue.

"You can't get fazed by these days," he said, when asked by AUTOSPORT about how he has endured similar difficult testing programmes before. "You have to keep looking forwards and remain positive.

"The guys in the garage, they are not trying to have this kind of thing happen. They are working as hard as they can back at the factory, so I am glad that this didn't happen at the last test at Barcelona. That would really suck.

"Having it now, we can get it out of the way. If there are any more problems to come, I hope they come tomorrow and the next day, so then we can have clear days after that."

Hamilton's accident was caused by a failure of the rear brake hydraulics on the entry to the Dry Sack hairpin.

Mercedes is working on a solution to prevent a repeat of the issue. It is believed to have been the result of hydraulic fluid leaking out of the system.

Speaking about the accident, Hamilton said: "I hit the brake and, for a split second, it was working. But then the pedal went straight down. It just wasn't working and then I had to brace for the impact... My legs got a bit of a bump."

Hamilton revealed that he elected to hit the barriers head-on because he did not want to seriously damage the car.

"If you go in sideways you rip the whole side off. It is much easier just going in front ways and damaging the nose."

Following Rosberg's troubles, Hamilton thinks it vital Mercedes gets some decent mileage in the final two days of the Jerez test, especially because he has a positive feeling about the performance of the car.

"We have lots of tyres, we just need to make sure that we go out when it goes 9am tomorrow morning," he said. "Nico needs to be the first out and we need to try and get as many laps as possible. 110/120 laps a day that will be good."

He added: "I am quite happy with it [the car]. I think we have a good foundation and we can work on something.

"That [lap time] was an easy time to do. There is definitely more in it. But definitely I am pushing the aero guys as much as I can because I need aero for sure.

"Coming from a McLaren that was so competitive at the end of last year, it had incredible downforce, definitely you notice the difference. But it is nowhere near as bad as it could be."

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