Silverstone test ban a blow to Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton thinks we are all stupid

(GMM) Lewis Hamilton on Tuesday said Mercedes' inability to test at Silverstone next month is a blow to the Brackley based team.

Red Bull, angry at the German outfit's light penalty at the end of the 'test-gate' scandal, said sitting out the young drivers test will not hurt Mercedes.

"You can't really try anything in the young drivers test," Dr Helmut Marko said this week.

"The drivers at the wheel are just learning about formula one, while Mercedes had three days (in Barcelona) with their regular drivers."

But Hamilton, although not eligible to test next month, insisted on Tuesday that having to sit out Silverstone will hurt Mercedes.

"That does suck a little bit," the 2008 world champion told reporters at Mercedes' Brackley factory.

"It's important because we had a lot planned, upgrades and stuff, on those three days," he is quoted by Reuters.

"It definitely puts us back a little bit but we're going to have to try to figure out a way to recover it elsewhere."