McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he had learnt his lesson and was ready to make amends in Spain this weekend for his disappointing last race in Bahrain.
”Obviously I won’t be making the same mistake again,” he told reporters at the Circuit de Catalunya.
”Just being here, feeling fresh after a good break from racing, and making sure we come here fresh has been important. I feel good,” he added.
Hamilton, last year’s overall runner-up in his rookie Formula One season, won the opening Australian Grand Prix in March but finished only fifth in Malaysia and then slumped to 13th in Bahrain.
The 23-year-old made a mistake on the starting grid and said afterwards that he had let the team down with the lowest finish of his fledgling career.
”We had the car to do a better job and I didn’t do it,” he repeated on Thursday.
”The team were very, very supportive and so were my family and I just took it on the chin and kept my chin high, and said that at the next race we will do a better job.”
Since then the Briton has tested in Barcelona, with Mercedes-powered McLaren introducing a package of improvements to the car.
Hamilton said McLaren had made a good step forward and expected Ferrari and BMW Sauber, who lead the constructors’ standings after three races, to be the main rivals again.
”The top three teams will be quick and I guess it will be who is on the best fuel strategy,” he said.
”Who knows whether Ferrari have the quickest car or we have the quickest car, in the test everyone was doing something different,” added the Briton, who finished second at the Circuit de Catalunya last year.
”But I feel quite confident and sure that we have got a good package and I feel up for the fight.”
The Barcelona circuit is familiar to all the teams from extensive testing there and the first race of the season in Europe is generally considered the first real indication of the pecking order.
But Hamilton disputed that.
”People say that, but I don’t particularly agree. Last year Ferrari were very, very fast here and so were we, but then it is different at every track,” he said.
”Obviously, we do a lot of testing here and it is a great circuit to do that. The weather is always good and the wind conditions quite low so it’s good for testing and finding the pace of the car, but all the tracks are different.” — Reuters