Can you remember the last time Mercedes actually struggled before the start of a season? Well, you need to think back to 7 years ago when the team were still at an embryonic stage in its F1 career. Lewis Hamilton had just signed with Mercedes after a 5-year partnership with McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton suffers a crash on Mercedes’ debut

Jerez-February 6, 2013. Hamilton headed out with the Silver Arrow for the very first time in his career, but things didn’t go according to plan. The Briton suffered a heavy crash and ended up in the barriers following a brake issue.

Hamilton was unhurt following the accident and was grateful to be safe.

“I’m just glad that firstly I’m safe and that it’s happened now, not when we’re in the season or something,”

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“This is what testing is about. It’s about getting through those development phases, errors or whatever they may be and working on them and that’s what the guys are doing.”

Mercedes revealed that Hamilton’s W04 suffered a loss of rear brake pressure – resulting in the crash.

“We had a failure with one of the brake pipes, the hydraulic lines, so when I hit the brakes they did not work, basically. Just the front brakes worked, not the rears, so I just went straight on.

Hamilton also admitted that the Mercedes lacked downforce when compared to McLaren. Lewis was otherwise satisfied with the performance of the car.

Moving past the setback

“I’m pushing the aero guys as hard as I can because we need more aero, definitely. Coming from a McLaren that was so competitive at the end of last year and had incredible downforce, I definitely notice the difference, but it is nowhere near as bad as it could be.”

Despite the crash, Hamilton ended the day sixth fastest – having completed 15 laps.

Fast forward to 2020 and Hamilton has secured 5 World Championships with Mercedes AMG. The Briton also holds the record for the most pole positions and is on course to surpass Michael Schumacher’s record. Additionally, Mercedes have won every single championship since the inception of the turbo-hybrid era.

We might see history repeat itself with Mercedes not topping the timesheets right away at testing. But fear not, the sandbags will come off once Melbourne arrives.