After spending his first day with the new Mercedes W10 car, Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was so thrilled that it was “one of the best” first experiences he’s had in a Formula 1 vehicle.The five-time, and current, world champion will be pursuing a sixth Drivers’ Championship in 2019 and took the wheel in the cockpit of Mercedes’ newly-launched car at the Silverstone launch on Wednesday.Although Mercedes didn’t reveal any information on how Hamilton felt in the car that he’s ‘ready to attack’ in this season, the 34-year-old was publicly ecstatic.“It was a great first date, probably one of the best ones that we’ve had in all these years,” he said with a smile on his face, as per PlanetF1.“But what has been most impressive is seeing the car coming together last night, which is always impressive to see. And then to see how smooth today has gone.”Hamilton did admit that there were still aspects to be worked on, but overall was optimistic about how the day went in front of the British media.“There are things we can continue to work on, but so many people worked tirelessly to pull this car together, and to see it come to the test and go out, get through the programme we needed to and get the filming done is great.

“For me, it is crazy because I have been racing a long time, it’s my seventh year with the team, but the excitement I had today was the same I had when I first got in an F1 car, which is really weird, and I was not expecting that.”

The first series of pre-season testing sessions begin at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain on Monday until Thursday, before the second series takes place on the following Tuesday to Friday.