World champion Lewis Hamilton says his McLaren team is working flat out to remedy an aerodynamic problem with his car that threatens to keep him from the points in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
World champion Lewis Hamilton says his McLaren team is working flat out to remedy an aerodynamic problem with his car that threatens to keep him from the points in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
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Hamilton, who became the youngest F1 champion with his thrilling one-point title win over Ferrari's Felipe Massa last season, has been talking down his chances in the season-opening race. Today's practice times bore that out.
The 24-year-old Briton finished a lowly 18th place out of 20, some 1.76secs adrift of Nico Rosberg's best lap time in practice in a Williams-Toyota. Hamilton has blamed a lack of grip in his McLaren-Mercedes car and concedes there is no 'quick fix' to his problems.
But he believes the experience of the McLaren works team can get him back on track in defence of his world drivers' title. Asked if he was prepared to drive in midfield or at the back of the field, contrary to his usual race positioning, Hamilton pointed to the team's breadth of experience. "There is a lot of experience in the team and personally I have a lot of experience with it driving in other (motor racing) categories, so it's not completely new to me," he said.
"And we've had some races where I have been a bit further back. For sure, we're not in a place where we would rather be, but we're working as hard as we can and it's a good opportunity for us to try and turn it round. There's a very tough challenge ahead of us, but if anyone can do it I feel my team can, so we just have to remain positive and keep pushing."
Hamilton pinpointed aerodynamic glitches which needed addressing by his team's engineers. "In general it's a good car, it's just a general lack of grip everywhere. It's not in particularly one area of the track, it's everywhere," he said.
"It just can't carry the speeds through corners as we would like, it's predominantly aerodynamics, we've made some steps forward with it." He said the gap with the other teams was not as big as it had been during winter testing in Barcelona but acknowledged, "We still have a long way to go. There's no quick fix, it's going to take time."
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