McLaren
Hamilton goes into the German Grand Prix - rotating back to the Nurburgring after it was held at Hockenheim last year - 11th in the World Championship, with the MP4-24 failing to match up to some of the other challengers, most notably the Brawn of compatriot Jenson Button.
He has finished 16th, 13th and 12th in his last three races.
“The last time we raced at the Nurburgring was in 2007, and I remember I had a tough afternoon battling through from the back of the field to finish just outside the points,” he said. Yahoo! Eurosport
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“While we aren’t expecting any major upgrades for this weekend, I’m still looking forward to the race,” Hamilton said.
“It’s an honour to be part of the Silver Arrows and, while our results haven’t recently shown it, we’re still pushing incredibly hard and are all hopeful of moving closer to the front before the end of this difficult season.”
Having won the race on F1’s previous two visits to Germany, team boss Martin Whitmarsh acknowledges the team can’t travel to the Nurburgring with similarly lofty ambitions this time around – but says everyone at Woking is working hard to improve its fortunes.
“While we can’t expect to match our previous record in Germany, where we’ve won the race for the past two seasons, we’re still pushing hard to develop MP4-24 into a more competitive proposition,” he said.
“Make no mistake, we’re hugely proud of having the Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star on the front of our cars – and nothing would make us prouder than getting back to the front again as soon as we possibly can.” ITV
The Finn, though, insists there’s still something to be gained from this year’s campaign, even if it just the lessons of what went wrong.
“I think it is very important (not to repeat this year’s mistakes), and I think the team is doing a very systematic job of actually attacking the problem,” he said.
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“I have spent quite a lot of time in the factory now talking to the designers, both myself and Lewis (Hamilton) have been there, to talk to designers, and the people who are in change of next year’s car already, and we shared our thoughts and views on what we thought the car was doing, and what we thought it needed.
“I don’t know why, but I never have had problem with my motivation. I think if I had, it would be a worrying sign - why am I here at all? I am still trying to do the maximum, and I just want to get back the top.” SkySports
