Lewis Hamilton is to use new confidante Didier Coton as someone on whom he can "offload" as he closes in on securing his much-needed 'happy bubble'.

Hamilton is now back to where he is most content, behind the wheel of a McLaren that is being put through its paces in pre-season testing ahead of the latest Formula One campaign.

The 27-year-old finished third quickest of the new-spec cars on the third day of pre-season testing in Jerez, a second behind the Lotus of Romain Grosjean he labelled "quite impressive" and the Red Bull of double world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton seemed relatively content after completing a productive 80 laps in the MP4-27 before questions turned to a man who will be by his side at every grand prix this season.

Manager Simon Fuller and Hamilton have taken the step of bringing on board Belgian Coton to assist the Briton, when required and in whatever capacity, over the course of a season.

It is a new departure for Hamilton, who at least has someone who knows F1 inside and out having worked with a number of drivers, principal amongst them being double world champion Mika Hakkinen.

"I thought it was a good idea," said Hamilton when asked about Coton.

"Simon wanted to strengthen the team a little. We wanted someone who would have a bit more racing experience. It was just a question of who, so we've Didier.

"He has been a good friend of mine for many years, he has great experience with my team, but also in the F1 paddock.

"It will be quite strong to have him there at grands prix, just there when I need him. That's generally what he will be there for.

"It is having someone there who I can offload lots of stuff to. Last year I didn't always have someone."

Towards the end of last season Hamilton enviously reflected on the group of people that constantly surround team-mate Jenson Button.

At the time he referred to it as "a happy bubble", a term he later grew to regret, but at least he was able to smile when it was put to him today.

"I'm not going to use the phrase," said Hamilton.

"But this is definitely a step towards that direction, and I think I'm closer to having that."

Like Button following his first outing in the car, Hamilton can at least sense the team do not have their work cut out over the next two months, unlike a year ago when the new car was riddled with faults.

"I'm happy to be back and a day without any troubles, with quite a few laps compared to last year, so all positive so far," said Hamilton.

"It's a good baseline. I was a bit cautious going into today, just because looking at the times Jenson had experienced the last couple of days, I wasn't really sure where we'd be today.

"But when I put new tyres on I was able to extract the grip quite easily, and it definitely felt as though it's something we can work with.

"I definitely feel happier than at the start of last year's test with the new car.

"Last year we only did 10, 15 laps and then we had some failures, but today I did 80 laps, so it's a big improvement on last year, and mileage is everything.

"That's where the team learn the most about the car, the more data they get the better, so it's definitely been a good three days so far."

Vettel was another who felt satisfied with the new car, one he has yet to name unlike past monikers such as 'Luscious Liz' and 'Kinky Kylie'.

"It's been two months since we were in the car, so it does take a couple of laps to get back in the rhythm," said Vettel.

"But the car feels fine and as we expected, although there's quite a loss of grip due to the regulation changes.

"But you get used to it quickly and then start to explore how the new car feels.

"So far we can be happy. We had a couple of issues, but it's normal when the car is new."

Force India test driver Jules Bianchi, meanwhile, was forced into apologising after running into a barrier on only his third lap.

Although the damage was only slight, a lack of spare parts meant the team were unable to get the car back on track.