Hamilton: I’m ready to race despite limited testing

Lewis Hamilton has issued a confident battle cry declaring he’s ready to race for the 2018 Formula 1 world championship in the hunt for a fifth world title.

The reigning F1 world champion completed just 94 laps of Circuit de Catalunya during the first pre-season test for Mercedes after snow and cold temperatures curtailed large chunks of running.

Hamilton completed the fifth fewest laps of any F1 race driver, excluding Robert Kubica and Nikita Mazepin, but did top the final day timesheet with the fastest lap of the test with a 1m 19.333s on the medium Pirelli tyres. Despite his lack of running compared to the bulk of his F1 rivals Hamilton says he feels ready to race the Mercedes W09 without any further testing as he missed the thrill of racing.

“We could go to Melbourne now and go for it. I want to race to be honest,” Hamilton said. “Testing there is no competition and that is what I miss when you have that long, long break you just can’t wait to get back to that competitive atmosphere that is Formula 1 – there is nothing quite like it.

“So when you come to testing it is fun for the first half a day to get into the car and afterwards you say, ‘’okay, let’s go’.”

Hamilton says he’s optimistic Mercedes will get the opportunity to complete the required mileage it is seeking during next week’s second F1 test at the Spanish circuit to be race-ready for the 2018 F1 season opener in Melbourne. Early weather forecasts predict conditions to become dry and warmer.

“Hopefully next week we get plenty of running,” he said. “This week there were questions on whether we should have been in Bahrain where the weather is always good and you can test all day long. You can get a lot of testing done as you can go into the evening but I like being here in Europe, in Barcelona, a beautiful city so hopefully the good weather comes back next week.”