Hamilton: Pushing hard but no major upgrades

Saturday 4th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton concedes McLaren-Mercedes are facing a difficult home race in Germany as the team will not be introducing major upgrades to their under-performing MP4-24.

This year's Championship has been anything but successful for McLaren and their defending World Champion as their 2009 challenger has sorely lacked speed, something the team has struggled to find even when adding updates to the car.

As a result Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen haven't scored a single World Championship point in the last four races, leaving McLaren down in sixth place in the Constructors' standings, a marked difference to last year's achievements.

And, unfortunately for McLaren fans, Hamilton isn't expecting any better at the next race in Germany.

"While we aren't expecting any major upgrades for this weekend, I'm still looking forward to the race," he 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."

The Brit, though, is nonetheless eagerly awaiting a return to the Nurburgring, which last hosted a Formula One race back in 2007, Hamilton's first season in F1.

"It's a fantastic circuit, a little older than a lot of the current tracks we currently visit and with quite a different feel to what we're used to: it's fast and flowing with some good spots for overtaking," he said.

"And it's in a fantastic part of the world too; deep in the forests of western Germany, where the fans seem to live and breathe Formula 1. It's always an amazing party atmosphere whenever we race in Germany."

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh has also downplayed McLaren's chances at Mercedes's home race: "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.

"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."

German GP. Click here to bet.

Your Comments

Arnaldo1981

"I said before, I say it again there is no need for mclaren push hard or try to bring big updates this season is over long way before it start...(difusser and kers) messed it all up so even if mclaren had drivers like alonso or MS they wouldn't be able to fix this big problem with MP4-24 because as team boss martin said the problem started just when the designers put the first pencil to the paper as they tried to design a car that fits all the kers interpretations as obvious it happens to be a waste of time & money but I do feel like mclaren are a wound beast next year they will come with big arsenal ready to fire "

bazrat

"italliner you have now idea what your talking about Alonso is in a better car than Lewis and all he is doing is just keeping ahead of Lewis,so please stop the rubbish get a good book and forget about F1 it is beyond your ability."

italliner

"Obviously the McLaren team lacks valueble informations and feedback from their drivers. In difficult times the real racing drivers make the difference, but here I see no light in the tunnel. With the fastest car in track anybody can win (races & championships). Bring back Alonso and then you may stand a chance to build a fast car again, and after that you can call your golden boy to win races again with the fastest car on track."

woodsiesr

"I think it's time they re think the testing ban in order to give the teams a chance to improve their performance, as well as test their new components from a safety point of view. It must be quite disconcerting to be flying down the track not knowing if the new components will hold up or not, and also knowing that they have not been tested under race conditions. I think saving lives is more important than saving money. Lets get our priorities straight and lift the ban."

All comments on this story