Lewis Hamilton hopes that McLaren will sort the car out before the Korean Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton is confident about the Korean Grand Prix as he believes that his McLaren has more potential than it is delivering right now. Lewis hopes that his team is able to squeeze out his car’s full potential before the upcoming races, as he is not
giving up on his title challenge yet.
Before last weekend’s grand prix at Suzuka, McLaren claimed that they were “throwing everything including the kitchen sink” at developing their car for the final few races. The team came up with an updated rear wing and the F-duct but it proved to be useless
due to the limited practice running at Suzuka. However, McLarens were well off the pace of the Red Bulls throughout the weekend.
Hamilton’s accident during the first practice session and gearbox problems dented his chances of a solid performance as he was not able to perform as much as the rest of the drivers in the second practice session and due to the uncertain circumstances, Lewis
was not able to test the updates to their fullest. The gearbox change earned him a five place penalty on the grid to put the icing on the cake of a disastrous Japanese grand prix for Lewis Hamilton.
After the Friday Practice session, one would have blamed Lewis for everything but later on, after the qualifying session, the British driver proved why he is called the fastest driver on the track as he qualified in 3rd place on the grid. The
five place penalty was not his fault as his gearbox failed and there was nothing he could do about it but change it.
Despite these recent setbacks, he still believes that he has a car that was quicker than it looked and he still has the potential to challenge for wins at the final three grand prix races.
“I was pleased with the pace we showed during the race. Jenson set the second-fastest lap, and, before my gearbox problem, I was closing down on Fernando [Alonso] and could even have made it onto the podium despite a five-place grid penalty”, Hamilton said.
The dedication and work Lewis Hamilton is putting in his car and his performance is beyond the rest of the drivers. One can easily say that if Hamilton did not have to face a five place grid penalty, he might have even won the race.
“Given that we weren't racing all the updates we'd brought to Japan with us, I think that gives us a lot of encouragement for Korea and beyond”, he added.
Hamilton is not worried about the 27 points deficit off the championship leader Mark Webber, he believes that we have witnessed many times in the Formula 1 that the final races become very intense and pressurizing so anything can happen.
“It's getting more difficult, I'm fully aware of that. But, in a situation like this, I always look back at the 2007 season and what happened in those final two or three races. I think Kimi [Raikkonen] was 17 points behind with two races remaining, but he
still managed to win the world championship”, he said of his title chances.
Lewis claims that he has learnt that on more than one occasion, the world championship is not decided until the very last race so there is no point in giving up yet. With both of the McLaren drivers at the bottom of the table, the team does not have any
room for mistakes in the coming 3 races. Similarly, is the case with Red bull and Ferrari. Especially Red Bull as it would be more suitable to finish the race with at least some points rather than finish with no points at all. However, McLaren must win in
order to increase their chances.
“I want to win again and I go to Korea believing we can do that. And, who knows, if that happens and the other championship contenders fail to score, then I'm right back in it.”
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