Lewis Hamilton says his new McLaren is a “huge improvement” on the car that last year cost him any real chance of retaining his Formula One world title.
The British driver eventually won two races last season, but McLaren’s terrible start left him too far behind to defend his 2008 crown. The title went instead to his new teammate, Jenson Button, then with Brawn GP.
Speaking after testing on Tuesday from the Cheste circuit, Hamilton said it was “night and day in difference and feel” compared with the first lap on the first test day of last year.
PHOTO: EPA
“Obviously, I’ve kept a close eye on the development of this car, [so] I was very excited to get into this car today to see what parts we improved and hopefully that we had got rid of most of the bugs we had in the previous car,” Hamilton said. “And we got in today and it felt good.”
Hamilton believes this season’s rule changes have not been drastic, which means cars have evolved rather than been overhauled.
Last season’s poor testing already seemed like a distant memory, although Hamilton warned it was still too early to say whether McLaren had a car capable of winning the championship.
“All of the problems generally I had in the last car, I don’t have in this one,” the 25-year-old Hamilton said. “There’s still a lot of areas I can improve on, [but] I do feel it’s a huge improvement from the beginning of 2009. We’re not two-three seconds behind.”
Hamilton gave way yesterday to Button, who begun his stint at McLaren by sharing the track with Michael Schumacher — his replacement at Brawn, now renamed Mercedes GP.
The seven-time F1 champion returns after a three-season absence and has already demonstrated he will likely be a force after setting the third-fastest time on Monday.
“I heard he had a good day and I had no doubts he would be competitive and fast right away,” Hamilton said.
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