McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has already expressed some confidence in the car he will be driving during the 2012 campaign.
The 26-year-old is hoping the MP4-27, McLaren’s 2012 car, will be able to challenge Red Bull from the very beginning, but admitted the back-to-back champions remained the favourites going into pre-season testing.
“Certainly. It will be up to us to be able to surpass them [Red Bull],” Hamilton told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“From what I’ve seen, however, the new McLaren seems a lot better than last year’s,” he claimed.
“Basically Red Bull is an evolution of the aerodynamic concepts introduced in 2009. Midway through 2011 it was phenomenal, it was at the highest level and on top of that it almost never broke down.
“By contrast, when we had the same reliability, we lacked the same performance.”
This is something he is hoping to avoid in 2012, as he looks to put a disappointing season behind him.
“During the winter you always dream of arriving at the start of the season with a car that goes quick immediately. This hasn’t happened in the last two seasons. I want it to happen this year,” he added. “If we start well, we’ll stay at the top more easily.”
