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Lewis Hamilton says his early impressions of McLaren’s 2012 challenger are that it “seems a lot better than last year’s” car.
However, the 2008 world champion still feels Red Bull will be the team to beat this season.
Hamilton endured a frustrating 2011 on and off the track, although with three wins to his credit — only world champion Sebastian Vettel managed more — he now thinks that it “wasn’t that bad after all”.
After a few weeks away from the F1 circus, Hamilton is clearly feeling more positive about life in general but he stressed that Red Bull’s car would still provide the benchmark.
“Certainly. It will be up to us to be able to surpass it,” Hamilton said. “From what I’ve seen, however, the new McLaren seems a lot better than last year’s.”
Explaining why Red Bull have enjoyed the upper hand in recent seasons, the 26 year-old added: “Basically Red Bull is an evolution of the aerodynamic concepts introduced in 2009.”
“Midway through 2011 it was phenomenal, it was at the highest level and on top of that it almost never broke down.” Telegraph.co.uk
“By contrast, when we had the same reliability, we lacked the same performance.”
“During the winter you always dream of arriving at the start of the season with a car that goes quick immediately,” he said. “This hasn’t happened in the last two seasons. I want it to happen this year. If we start well, we’ll stay at the top more easily.”
Hamilton also played down the prospect of his relationship with Button becoming strained, assuming McLaren’s car can make them both title contenders.
Button finished ahead of Hamilton in the 2011 drivers’ championship - the first time the latter had been beaten by a team-mate during his career.
“Jenson is very quick and he’s gathered a strong team of technicians around him. I’d like to be ahead of him all the times, and I’m not happy if the opposite happens,” Hamilton added.
“However, psychologically it’s absolutely not a problem. Besides, he’s an open and cheerful guy who I get along with. It would be nice to fight for the 2012 championship with him: that’s just up to McLaren!” SkySports
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