For a man who is religiously at his desk 6.30am each morning (so he can get two hours of work done before the factory gets busy), and loves the catchphrase 'the early bird catches the worm', the start to last week's Formula 1 pre-season test must have felt like heaven.
Mercedes once again aimed to extend its tradition (in the hybrid era) of being first out on track for the start of testing, but Valtteri Bottas actually lost out in the chase to the end of the pitlane to Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso.
So when the lights flicked green at 9.10am, and Hartley accelerated out on to the Barcelona track, it marked a very small yet quite significant statement of intent about how much Toro Rosso means business with its switch to Honda for 2018.