Hamilton praises “incredible development”

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Lewis Hamilton has praised McLaren’s rate of development since the start of the season after recording his first win of the year in the Turkish Grand Prix.

Hamilton told his official website:

I can’t keep the smile off my face – we are absolutely on it! Last year, you saw what we could do when we came from behind – we started the season at the back of the grid, but we were back at the front halfway through the year, and were still able to win two races.

This team is just an incredible development machine – it never stops. We live and breathe racing, and we are just churning out new parts, working harder than I’ve ever seen the team work to try and help us win these world championships.

I think it’s something that has really surprised Jenson – but in a good way; just the intensity and determination with which we push forward. I think the result in Turkey was the perfect motivation we needed, and I know the whole factory is working flat-out to bring forward the new parts. We go to Canada feeling pretty highly motivated, and I can just sense there’s a momentum building within the team – I felt the same feeling in 2008, and I know that we can achieve great things together over the next six months, so it’s all good.
Lewis Hamilton

He also said he enjoyed his wheel-to-wheel battle with team mate Jenson Button towards the end of the race:

To finally have a race with my team-mate – wheel to wheel – was a great feeling and to come out on top was a bonus. I am looking forward to many more races like that where we have fun, hard battles yet fair in our race to the championship.

I’ve known Jenson for a very long time, and I think we have a lot of respect for each other, and what we’ve achieved as drivers. We’re both world champions, so we have a certain amount of pressure removed from our shoulders too.

And I’ve really got to know Jenson well over the past six months. We’ve been working hard, we’ve spent a lot of time together, at the circuit and at events arranged by Vodafone and our other partners – it’s funny, but I think that, because we’ve spent a lot of downtime together during filming days or appearances, that we’ve actually got to know each other better than if, say, we’d only been working together at the track. He brings a lot of positive energy to the race weekends, and he’s made our team stronger, so these are all positives.

I think it’s inevitable that we’ll be battling again on the track sooner or later. There are 12 races left, and I’d be surprised if we weren’t racing each other again at some point soon. Of course, we’ll both work hard to make it’s fair, but our eyes are open to the fact that it will happen again – and, actually, I think that’ll be cool, because he’s a good guy to race with.
Lewis Hamilton

Button has won two races to Hamilton’s one this year. While McLaren lead the constructors’ championship by a single point from Red Bull, Button is second in the drivers’ title, four points ahead of Hamilton.

Read more: Hamilton "surprised" by Button’s pass (Turkish Grand Prix team-by-team)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Hamilton praises “incredible development””

  1. Someone sounds happy. Would think he’s hoping for another win in Canada.

  2. Ned Flanders
    3rd June 2010, 20:19

    “I can’t keep the smile off my face”. Funny, you looked about as cheerful as a stone on the podium the other day

    1. And If he was cheerful, you would say he’s laughing at someone else’s bad luck. He won by accident, and he behave quite properly.

      1. yep agreed cyclops.
        I thought i was the only one who thought he behaved appropriately.
        He race performance was very good but if it wasnt for some Red bull fun and games the likelihood is he would have finished 3rd.

        If he has a lights to flag at Canada then id expect some kissing lenses, toothy smiles, cart wheels and stuff..

      2. Yeah, I think Hamilton pretty much explained why he was a bit subdued on the podium.

  3. HounslowBusGarage
    3rd June 2010, 20:28

    Everything in the Hamilton camp is rosy, then.
    I will admit to being a cynical old sod, but I do question whether this particular entry on Hamilton’s website was in reponse to the not-so-cheerful one on Massa’s blog.
    As far as I know Massa’s came first (at least Keith reported it first), and it make sober reading for Ferrari fans everywhere. So, did Lewis’ PR guardians whip this one up from nowhere just to rub salt into the Scuderia’s wounds?
    As Ned says, Lewis didn’t look all that cheerful on Sunday.

    1. Yeah couldn’t work that out myself. Even at the expence of someone else it’s still a win. And he hasn’t won since last year. Maybe he’s worried about Jenson appearing on the podium next to him? He is now back up in the points though.

      1. http://www.formula1.com/video/race_edits.html watch the race edit of turkey and you will see why he was miffed they show the radio message that wasn’t aired live.

        1. That is very clear, and what I expected.
          He asked if he slows down to save fuel.. will Jenson take me… ‘no’ .. Jenson at fault here.

        2. Thanks for providing the link Capefear. Didn’t know it was available on the official website.

          Lewis: If i back off, Jenson is going to pass me or not?

          Team: No Lewis. No

          Didn’t hear that on TV. Now i understood why Lewis was not in so good mood. Just seconds later Jenson tried to overtake Hamilton and was clearly not backing off/saving fuel as much as Lewis.
          I have to say i was not agreeing with people saying Mclaren is favouring Jenson but now i have some doubts.

  4. Mclaren will be strong at Montreal. The long straight will have them in a similar situation with Mcalren closing the gap to any advantage the Red Bulls pulled during the twisty section of the course. Just hope the red bulls’ development and performance of their F-duct is not as strong as Mclarens.

    1. Actually, I think Canada will suit McLaren perfectly, The Red Bull has a considerable down force advantage, so in the quick chicane they will be ahead, But the McLaren seems to have stronger Mechanical grip, We saw this in the last few corners in Turkey. Because Canada has the long straight, and it has the tight corners aplenty, I think the Red Bull will finally be caught in terms of pace.

      1. “But the McLaren seems to have stronger Mechanical grip” Well, not in Monaco they hadn’t.

        1. I remember during the Turkish Grand Prix Brundle commentated that considering how strong the McLaren front end was he wondering why they didn’t do better at Monaco.

          1. People, including Brundle, have speculated that the bumpyness of the Monaco track made McLaren go to a high and stiff suspension setup (similar to problem in Bahrain). In that light it is interesting that Button tried a setup that he said after qualifying might have been “a bit too low for the bumps in turn 8”.

            Maybe they will learn from this for other tracks, accepting a bit of a bumpy ride to keep speed through lower speed bumpy corners.

            And maybe their front wing updates in Turkey worked?

  5. It´s amazing how Button made the right move over to McLaren. In retrospect, he saw things that no one else saw. Well done !
    McLaren has a better technical team than Ferrari. Lou thinks that by making delirious speeches and ranting on internet the cars will go faster.
    Cheers for Ron and his men.

    1. The pair hamilton-Button has much better feeling than hamilton-alonso. I think this has been very positive for McLaren as well.

      1. Sure, but I believe at the 7Th race in 2007, it was all more or less still rosy on the outside between the two

  6. I think Lewis’s appearance was due to to two things. One because he ackowledged he won because of the crash so was mindful of overcelebrating (Even though it was the pressure he was applying to the Red Bulls that led to the “Incident”) The second reason i think was because of the Button pass attempt. He had been told to drive to a lap time which appears to have been slower than Button’s leaving him open to his team mate making a sneaky pass. He was probably feeling like either the team had set him up to be passed or Button had tried to take advantage of him when he thought they were holding station and not expecting to have to defend from his own team mate who was supposed to be saving fuel too. I think that has now been clarified and he feels happier.

    1. It was good to see them both go wheel to wheel. I’d enjoy seeing a repeat in Montreal. Without any ‘Incidents’! Lets see if they can break Red Bulls in quali.

    2. I wonder if Hamilton will be asking the team to develop their fuel-usage prediction, which seems to work quite well, further along the same lines, but add in a slightly bigger safety factor when filling the tank before the race, for both cars, so that they do not end up in Turkey situation again.

  7. Surely someone isn’t trying to make fernano jealous…

  8. I think it’s better for Mclaren to manage their two drivers well so that they don’t take each other out on the race track. Because I think they are so far the only team that can challenge the Bulls.

  9. Is Nicole walking funny this morning I wonder?

    Seriously though, he does have a point – McLaren seem to be able to develop their cars and iron out any issues much faster than the other teams. I wonder if this is related to the visible aero testing and calibration they did earlier in the year with the odd frames fixed to the cars at Barcelona? (Such as http://images.gpupdate.net/large/146412.jpg ).

    Surely only a fool would bet against a McLaren 1-2 at Montreal – long straights will favour the F-duct and big braking zones might make the Red Bulls’ brakes go borderline as they have done at other tracks already.

    1. I believe red bull will be in the mix though. Mac Laren being first in the championship today is down to better management rather than better car

  10. Mclaren’s development rate is indeed incredibly.
    Ferrari has been used to building a super car in the beginning of the season, and didn’t need to make such big development i guess.

  11. Someone’s been tickling Lewis. But pick through the PR drivel and compare it with what’s been coming out of Red Bull, and I know which team I’d back for the championship. No idea which driver though!

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