Hamilton relishing Schumacher battle

Lewis Hamilton says he’s looking forward to racing against Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari drivers in F1 this year.

The McLaren driver said:

With Michael I think it’s just a real thrill have such a legend on the track. I’m really excited to be on the same track as him and I’m sure at some stage we’ll have some good battles, I’m really looking forward to that.

Of course hopefully if we’re at the front we’ll be competing with Felipe and Fernando. That’s fantastic for me because in 2007 we were competing with Felipe and Kimi and now Fernando’s there, another incredible driver, I think it’s good to see this battle, a really fun battle and it’s good to see those guys back up there.
Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton tipped six different cars to lead the field this year but also singled out Ferrari as the team that has the advantage at the moment:

I think the biggest rivals will be us, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Sauber and Force India.

In terms of drivers you’ve get Felipe and Fernando, me and Jenson, probably Vettel and Mark Webber, I would say they’ve got a quick car. And Michael and Nico so it’s really difficult to say who will be competitive but at the moment the Ferrari looks fastest, I think.
Lewis Hamilton

He didn’t agree with Schumacher’s suggestion yesterday that McLaren are the pace setters heading into the first race:

I don’t think we are in the strongest position. I think we are in a strong position. But it really is impossible to say who was fastest – you don’t know what fuel loads everyone was on. We were on decent fuel loads all day on Sunday so we’re quite comfortable with our pace that day but without doubt we have to keep pushing because other people will come with updates for the first race. We’re pushing as hard as we can to find some more time.
Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton feels tyre wear will be difficult to manage in 2010 and the refuelling ban will change the dynamics of race strategy:

I definitely think it’ll be as important as ever to overtake on the track but it’s harder this year to keep the car on the track because the tyres are dropping off so fast and graining.

It’s different with pit stops now and I don’t know what role they’re going to play this year. Now, whoever stops before the other one can jump them so it’s a different strategy. But I think it’s going to give us some good racing.
Lewis Hamilton

With testing so limited in the run-up to the first race Hamilton said it was too soon to draw comparisons between how he and new team mate Jenson Button use the MP4-25:

At the moment we haven’t overlaid our race traces. We seem to give the exact same feedback and have the same feeling in the car which is positive.

The first race will give us a real indication of just how different we are in the car when we’re driving on the same day.

He also gave his vote of confidence to the new team structure at McLaren implemented for this season:

It’s quite a change for me because I was working with Jakob [Andreason] who is now Jenson’s race engineer. I was working with the same guys for the last few years so it was new for me to change my engineers and have a fresh start.

For me I’ve got a great guy in Andy Latham, he’s got great experience. It’s much better organised now, I think, than we have been in the past and I think it will work very well.
Lewis Hamilton

Read more: McLaren drivers get new race engineers