Barcelona, Spain - Lewis Hamilton could give you 156 good reasons why Bernie Ecclestone was right when he said Formula One is too predictable.
That was the number of laps the world champion drove in his bomb-proof Mercedes - two-and-a-half times the distance of a Grand Prix - on the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Nobody else managed more than 88.
Yet for all the miles Hamilton notched, there was a ray of light for those who would welcome a competition breaking out, and it was coloured red.
Vettel quickest in first F1 test
Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, the one team which believes it might be able to challenge the Silver Arrows when the season starts in Melbourne on 20 March, recorded the fastest time of the day, nearly half a second quicker than Hamilton.
However, beyond pointing to the total serenity at Mercedes, indicators as early as this come with a big health warning.
Formula One chief executive Ecclestone, who complained on Monday the state of the sport was so bad he would not buy a ticket to watch it, added: “After two years of Mercedes dominance, I’d like to see Ferrari win the title - not because I support them, but because it would be good for Formula One.”
Trying to prevent that happening is Hamilton, who lost the final three races of the 2015 season to team-mate Nico Rosberg.
“I’m not taking a huge amount from those races,” he said. “My frame of mind switched once the championship was won. I enjoyed the end of the season more than ever, in and out of the car.”
Hamilton ranked Monday’s session as his most trouble-free start yet to testing.
“I feel very strong, and wanting to win is part of my DNA. It’s not as if I have to reinvent myself or pull motivation out of thin air.”
NEEDED: BIGGER, FASTER CARS
Ecclestone’s concerns will be addressed at a meeting of the Formula One Commission in Geneva on Tuesday. On the agenda are bigger, faster cars that place more emphasis on driver skill, and mixed grids, all for the 2017 season.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity for Formula One.
“The thing that concerns me is that every team has a vested interest. We need to see strong governance and leadership.
“If we make changes we should make them properly. You want to see driver and machine at the limit.
“I read Bernie’s comments and they were pretty punchy. I think he is frustrated with where Formula One is, and in the old days it would have been easier to fix it. Now that we have this democracy in the sport it’s very hard to get everybody to agree.”
McLaren’s Jenson Button managed 84 laps, five more than the Woking-based team managed in four days of engine-afflicted testing a year ago.
It seems to have found greater reliability, even if its pace appears unlikely to trouble the podium any time soon.
Daily Mail