F1: Mercedes to try 'unusual' parts

Mercedes will experiment with what Toto Wolff feels are "slightly unusual" components during the remainder of the Barcelona Formula 1 test.

Picking up where it left off in 2014 and '15, Mercedes enjoyed a faultless day with its new W07, as Lewis Hamilton completed a mammoth 156 laps on his way to second on the timesheets.

In launching the new car on Sunday, Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe outlined that the team would run close to its specification for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Barcelona, and Wolff admitted that process might turn heads in the coming days.

"I think we are having some bits which are maybe slightly unusual," Wolff said. "I'm not sure whether they come on the car tomorrow or after tomorrow it depends on how the analysis of the data from today goes. But certainly some things to look at, when I saw it the first time I was pretty surprised by the new bits in the car."

Wolff added that the team had set "ambitious" mileage targets for the opening day of the test before sampling its development parts. Hamilton covered 451 miles on Monday, having completed the equivalent of a race distance – 66 laps – before the lunch break.

"Our target for today was to do lots of laps, lots of mileage to collect data and to check various systems and correlation before we head into the next phase, which is looking at performance starting tomorrow and after tomorrow," Wolff said. "We had the plan of logging so many kilometres and when we discussed it with Lewis and Nico [Rosberg] before testing.

"Paddy was saying we might be doing seven, eight or 900km to day. It was an ambitious target but we showed that the team is capable of achieving it and the driver is capable of holding on."

HAMILTON'S BEST FIRST DAY

While he finished the day 0.470 seconds behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton was buoyed by the start of his bid for a third straight world championship.

"It has been an amazing day," he said. "I've never had a day-one like today. To get in the new car and to have no problems is just a remarkable job done by the team.

"It was just encouraging so there was no need to find motivation, the motivation was to get the car as far as possible in terms of distance because that puts us in good stead for the season."

Originally on Autosport.com