Question: Lewis, interesting little point you made in your preview - whether you remember it or not - about Jim Clark and the fact that you have become the driver who has driven for one team the longest in the history of Formula One racing. Just tell us about that.
Lewis Hamilton: I think this is my fifth year with my team, but we have had more races probably in this decade than probably what they had back in Jim Clark’s day so maybe I have just done more races. I don’t know if it is actually more years or not. I think it feels pretty good to know that I have been consistent and that I have had a good track record with a great team and that it is going to continue.
Question: And loyalty is something you place quite highly I think?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, I think my family, particularly my Dad, was one to really point out that was a very important value that I should grow up with. From a very early age I felt that was something quite important. Of course, loyalty is an important key to relationships in life but they are not the deciding factor. But you have got to try and keep good relationships with people as long as you can.
Question: You have got some updates that you are using I think tomorrow that you tried in Malaysia. What are you expecting from those?
Lewis Hamilton: I have no expectations going into tomorrow. I think the car, the temperatures are better here, so the car I am sure will be better this weekend than it was last weekend. With the upgrades, they were upgrades that came to the last race but didn’t particularly work and so it is just an attempt to try and get them to work as there is a decent amount of potential. But whether or not we will get it done and we make it work who knows – but it will be something we will continue to work on.
Question: Both you and Jenson Button were faster than Red Bull at times during the last grand prix. Can you carry that over? Can you be faster than them consistently? Obviously, it all depends on if they take a jump ahead as well.
Lewis Hamilton: I think a lot of factors come into it. My guess is in the last race they had to probably cool their car a lot more so they probably lost a bit of time there. Whether or not they had as good a KERS or as much KERS as us I don’t really know. It was close there but I am sure that they will be back on top form this weekend and have even more pace than they did in the last race. Whether or not we will be as close as we were in the last race we will find out here. Race pace tends to be quite similar to theirs, it is just generally in qualifying they seem to have an advantage.
Question: Lewis, you came away from Malaysia having lost a place, penalised after the race. What was your reaction to that? Did you think the penalty was fair?
Lewis Hamilton: It didn’t really make much difference. I was seventh; so seventh or eighth, it’s pretty cr*p either way. That’s racing. I think it was fair.
Question: Why did you think it was fair? Did you feel that you had been weaving on the track or defending?
Lewis Hamilton: Well, the previous year, obviously I had some big weaves on the straight which everyone disagreed with, which was fine. They said that they would be stricter on that this year. Looking back at it, I didn’t weave even half as much as I did in the previous time, and I didn’t put anyone in danger – but the rules state that you can only move once, to the better position. I think the confusing part was really whether I was defending a place or trying to lose the tow. But at the end of the day I got 20s. It was one place so I feel fortunate that it wasn’t any more than that and I will just try to avoid doing that in the future, so no one can complain.
Question: And is there any incentive to use it this weekend to get back on track?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t use that, I use the difficult race that we had. I definitely want to bounce back from that because we really had the opportunity to finish second quite easily and to end up eighth after starting second on the grid is not the kind of performance that we want to have in the future. I feel positive about this weekend. It’s in the past. It’s very early stages in the championship. I actually look at it as a blessing because there have been many races where you have started in nice positions and you don’t get any points at all. I’ve still got a couple of points and who knows whether they will be quite valuable points in the future?
Question: We as journalists talked a lot about rubber bullets and marbles over the last few days. Do you think it’s a very important issue that you are put in danger or is it something that doesn’t really mean anything?
Lewis Hamilton: I think it’s normal. In the past we had a lot of marbles in places like Montreal and of course you don’t have any run-off area, so it’s reasonably dangerous in some places there but now we have it more at other circuits - most of the circuits - but I don’t think it’s bad. I’ve tried overtaking a little bit. These tyres, OK, when you do go onto the marbles, you lose a bit of grip and it’s not that easy to clean them up as perhaps it was in the past but that’s racing. I don’t see any danger whatsoever.
| 
|