At 2.15pm local time, with almost three hours of the day’s running still
to go, the team confirmed that they would not be able to get Hamilton back
out on track on Wednesday.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg managed just 14 laps on the first
day of winter testing on Tuesday before an electrical fault ended his day,
flames briefly billowing out of the exhaust.
While teething troubles are a common feature of pre-season testing, the fact
that Mercedes have managed just 30-odd laps in two days will be a source of
huge frustration to Ross Brawn and his technical team, who are under huge
pressure to close the gap to the frontrunners.
With track time at such a premium – there are only three four-day tests
before the first grand prix of the season in Melbourne on March 17 –
Mercedes will now be desperate to get through the final two days of the test
without any more setbacks.
Rosberg is back in the car on Thursday with Hamilton completing this week’s
testing programme on Friday.
The team are currently repairing the damage to the car with no word yet on
when it will be ready.