Lewis Hamilton has shared another positive assessment of Mercedes’ new F1 car, describing it as a “clear improvement” over its predecessor and “much nicer to drive”.

Mercedes officially debuted their 2024 challenger with Hamilton’s team mate, George Russell, who gave an encouraging review after the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

And, having racked up his first laps with the W15 on Thursday, seven-time world champion Hamilton – who will depart the team for Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season – was quick to add his praise regarding the changes that have been made over the winter.

“It was a productive day out there,” commented Hamilton, who logged 123 laps, finishing the day 1.145 seconds off the pace set by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

“We gathered lots of learnings about the W15, both in our long running and single lap work. We’ve clearly made an improvement with this year’s car and it’s much nicer to drive.

“A big thank you to everyone at [the factories in] Brackley and Brixworth for the efforts they’ve put in to deliver that over the past year. I’m really grateful for all their hard work.”

Hamilton, who will be in the cockpit again on Friday morning, before handing over to Russell, added: “We’ve still got progress to make of course. But this is a good foundation for us to build on.

“We’ll keep our heads down and continue to work to find improvements, both over the rest of the test and into next week.”

He signed off: “I’m looking forward to being back in the car tomorrow morning and continuing that learning.”