Hamilton and Rosberg itching to unleash the Silver Arrows

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are itching to unleash the true performance of the new W07 after three days of sticking to a disciplined test programme on medium tyres, at race speeds, as the team collate data and the drivers rack up huge mileage.

Speaking at the end of day three of Formula 1 testing, after sharing driving duties with his teammate in Spain, Hamilton said, "I'm just waiting for the day we have more tyres, we get to do the super-soft and to start unleashing it and see how it goes."

"I actually prefer those test days because then you can go out, find what the car is like and then come back and make some set-up changes," mused the reigning world champion.

Mercedes are meticulously going through a pre-determined programme - racking up more laps than their rivals by some margin - as they maximise data acquisition and establish reliability, while around them teams are bolting on Ultra-soft and Super-soft tyres to claim the top spot on the timing sheets.

But this does not impress Hamilton, "I heard some people went on the softer tyres, but we are just focusing on our own process. There is just so much information to gather and understand on the car.

"Clearly we have a target, we came with a plan, and we're sticking to that. I'm really happy with the plan the team have implemented in the last couple of years, it has given us great results, so we'll stick with that," he added.

Teammate Rosberg is singing off the same hymn sheet, and told reporters after his Wednesday morning stint in the cockpit, "We haven't shown our cards yet. We're still holding back - and for sure the car is quick."

"The opposition also seems to be quick, so how quick we are nobody knows for now but we are confident. We need to push the car to its limit in order to find little problems," Rosberg revealed.

"At some point something will break and for now we need to keep on going to find out where the little weak points are. Lap time-wise, of course, it's not realistic where we are," he added with wry smile.