Faster and wider: Silver Arrows set for 2017 F1 opener

“It's been a busy winter for us. I don't remember how it was last year but this felt like a good couple of weeks. We're working together better than ever as a team and Valtteri has done great to blend in and do a solid job,” explained Lewis.

Eyeing his fourth world title, Lewis knows exactly how real the challenge is this year, especially given the huge technical rule changes this year. “The others seem quick, so it looks like we have a good battle on our hands,” continued Lewis. “Ferrari have been doing a fantastic job. I think there's more to come from them but their pace here has really been spectacular. I don't know if Red Bull had their full package here. Usually they bring that to the first race but they're definitely still up there and I expect a serious fight with both of those teams.

“I've never wished to dominate. But of course, I want a car that I can go out and fight for a Championship with - for the fans it's best when there's multiple teams fighting for it. I'm happy with what we've gained knowledge-wise and feel confident we got everything we needed from this test to go out and fight in Melbourne.”

 “It's been so nice over these past two weeks to see how we operate as a group, both on and off the race track,” Valtteri told us.

“Thanks to everyone in Brackley and Brixworth for creating this beautiful package. I hope we can extract the maximum from it straight from the word go in Melbourne. We've been testing lots of things, so it's going to take a long time to analyse everything that we've done. I've had a massive learning curve over these eight days and that will continue but I can't wait for the start lights to go out in Melbourne.”

Friday 24th March
Practice 1 - 12:00 – 13:30
Practice 2 - 16:00 – 17:30

Saturday 25th March
Practice 3 - 14:00 – 15:00
Qualifying - 17:00 – 18:00 (6am GMT / 7am CET)

Sunday 26th March
Race - 16:00 – 18:00 (5am GMT / 6am CET)
*All times local to Melbourne Australia