Lewis Hamilton failed to end 2009 with the win that was expected of him after he dominated practice and qualifying for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton's year as world champion sadly came to a premature end after 20 laps around the stunning Yas Marina circuit due to an issue with a right rear brake.
Mark Blundell: Jenson Button best paired with Brawn Despite that, Whitmarsh and Hamilton had every reason to feel proud of the team's fighting finish following a wretched start which saw the team take a miserable 14 points from the first nine races.
In the closing eight grands prix they netted 57 - 40 from Hamilton - to clinch a superb third place in the constructors' standings, a point ahead of their great rivals Ferrari.
Now the focus turns to next year, with McLaren seemingly already ahead of the game.
"The race was a disappointing end to a challenging season, but overall there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about it," said Whitmarsh.
"The team has worked tremendously hard all year to improve the car, which started as one of the slower, but ended it with two fine wins and a string of impressive points-scoring finishes.
"The fact we beat Ferrari to third place is also a matter of pride to us, and I want to pay tribute to all at the team for the superhuman efforts they made in achieving that milestone.
"Ferrari are always formidable opponents for us, and next year we hope to beat them again - this time for first place rather than third.
"Perhaps more important still is that work on next year's car is already going very encouragingly - it's already quicker than the current car.
"So there's every reason for us to be confident we'll be able to continue to develop and improve it significantly between now and the beginning of the 2010 season."
Hamilton's 40 points from the last eight races was still more than any other driver, and in three of those he failed to finish.
There was natural disappointment at being unable to end the season on a high.
But the 24-year-old is already looking forward to next year, and a more sustained tilt at the championship when he hopes to regain his crown.
"Of course, it's a shame we couldn't show the performance we'd had throughout the weekend, but sometimes that's racing," said Hamilton.
"However, I think we can be really proud of our efforts. Who'd have thought we'd finish third in the constructors' championship at the start of this season?
"It's been an incredible year, and now I can't wait for next season to start so I can fight for the world championship again."
Showing posts with label Hamilton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamilton. Show all posts
Monday, 2 November 2009
Lewis: Brake problem masked our pace
Lewis Hamilton said the brake problem that forced his retirement from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix had hindered him for many laps and prevented him from demonstrating his McLaren’s true speed.
Hamilton had been peerless in qualifying and was expected to walk away with the season finale, but instead was unable to shake off the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the opening stint.
A mistake under braking for turn 17 on lap 11 reduced his cushion over Vettel to less than one second, and although he inched away again he lost the lead to the German at the first pit stops.
The team later said it had spotted signs of abnormally high wear on the right-rear brake bad after just a handful of laps and had instructed Hamilton to conserve the brakes.
After those efforts proved fruitless, it called him into the garage to retire rather than risk a brake failure.
“I had a good start, but I realised early on that something wasn’t right with the brakes,” related Hamilton.
“After three or four laps, it became clear that there was a problem with my right-rear brake pad, so I couldn’t open up the gap back to Sebastian and Mark.
“When the problem got worse, the team radioed me and told me to stop at the end of the lap.”
McLaren said it would be conducting a full investigation into the cause but that its initial analysis pointed to a faulty brake bad.
Although he was disappointed not to be able to take race-winning momentum into the winter, Hamilton feels the team’s impressive recovery from a poor start to the season stands it in good stead for 2010.
“Of course, it’s a shame that we couldn’t show the performance we’d had throughout the weekend – but sometimes that’s racing,” he said.
“However, I think we can be really proud of our efforts: Who’d have thought we’d finish third in the constructors’ championship at the start of this season?
“It’s been an incredible year, and now I can’t wait for next season to start so I can fight for the world championship again.”
Hamilton had been peerless in qualifying and was expected to walk away with the season finale, but instead was unable to shake off the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the opening stint.
A mistake under braking for turn 17 on lap 11 reduced his cushion over Vettel to less than one second, and although he inched away again he lost the lead to the German at the first pit stops.
The team later said it had spotted signs of abnormally high wear on the right-rear brake bad after just a handful of laps and had instructed Hamilton to conserve the brakes.
After those efforts proved fruitless, it called him into the garage to retire rather than risk a brake failure.
“I had a good start, but I realised early on that something wasn’t right with the brakes,” related Hamilton.
“After three or four laps, it became clear that there was a problem with my right-rear brake pad, so I couldn’t open up the gap back to Sebastian and Mark.
“When the problem got worse, the team radioed me and told me to stop at the end of the lap.”
McLaren said it would be conducting a full investigation into the cause but that its initial analysis pointed to a faulty brake bad.
Although he was disappointed not to be able to take race-winning momentum into the winter, Hamilton feels the team’s impressive recovery from a poor start to the season stands it in good stead for 2010.
“Of course, it’s a shame that we couldn’t show the performance we’d had throughout the weekend – but sometimes that’s racing,” he said.
“However, I think we can be really proud of our efforts: Who’d have thought we’d finish third in the constructors’ championship at the start of this season?
“It’s been an incredible year, and now I can’t wait for next season to start so I can fight for the world championship again.”
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Hamilton confident of 2010 title shot
Lewis Hamilton says McLaren's late season surge has left him optimistic about the team being back in the hunt for world championship glory next season.
Although he still feels that the MP4-24 has its flaws, the outgoing world champion believes the fact the team got to the bottom of went wrong with its 2009 design is key to ensuring it gets its 2010 car spot on.
"It is extremely encouraging," said Hamilton about the end of year form. "I cannot express how encouraging it is. When you come from a team where for two years you have had a good, competitive car, to the beginning of the year where you had your doubts and you felt the car was just nowhere, and didn't know when or if it would get better, it is encouraging for the future.
"But it is also such an encouraging feeling to be working so close with everyone, my team-mate, and all the guys back at the factory. Bit by bit we are getting there."
Although McLaren opted to keep pushing with improving its current car this season, while rivals Ferrari and Renault switched all their efforts onto their 2010 cars early on, Hamilton thinks the team has not sacrificed any potential for next year.
"Sure you can always start earlier, but we had to understand and work with this year's car to know where we were going," he said.
"If you start making a new car but don't know where you've been or where you are coming from, then you cannot work on it. We think we have done a great job, a very good approach to understand mistakes and wrong routes/right routes with this car, to improve it to the point that we are now.
"But we have been focusing on next year's car for some time now so we should be quite strong."
And despite being one of the highest scoring drivers in the second half of the season, Hamilton thinks his current McLaren is still lacking compared to its rivals.
"Even though it is feeling quite good here on these slow speed corners, it is still not the best car by a fair amount," he said. "We still have a lot to improve on. And the foundations of the car are not perfect, so we need to improve that for next year.
"The faster we get, the worse the car gets in the high speed corners, and if we went to places like Spa we would struggle still. But the reliability has been good, the engine has been performing fantastically, and we have definitely got closer.
"If we had this car from the beginning we would have got closer, and if we had started from here we would have just continued to improve."
Although he still feels that the MP4-24 has its flaws, the outgoing world champion believes the fact the team got to the bottom of went wrong with its 2009 design is key to ensuring it gets its 2010 car spot on.
"It is extremely encouraging," said Hamilton about the end of year form. "I cannot express how encouraging it is. When you come from a team where for two years you have had a good, competitive car, to the beginning of the year where you had your doubts and you felt the car was just nowhere, and didn't know when or if it would get better, it is encouraging for the future.
"But it is also such an encouraging feeling to be working so close with everyone, my team-mate, and all the guys back at the factory. Bit by bit we are getting there."
Although McLaren opted to keep pushing with improving its current car this season, while rivals Ferrari and Renault switched all their efforts onto their 2010 cars early on, Hamilton thinks the team has not sacrificed any potential for next year.
"Sure you can always start earlier, but we had to understand and work with this year's car to know where we were going," he said.
"If you start making a new car but don't know where you've been or where you are coming from, then you cannot work on it. We think we have done a great job, a very good approach to understand mistakes and wrong routes/right routes with this car, to improve it to the point that we are now.
"But we have been focusing on next year's car for some time now so we should be quite strong."
And despite being one of the highest scoring drivers in the second half of the season, Hamilton thinks his current McLaren is still lacking compared to its rivals.
"Even though it is feeling quite good here on these slow speed corners, it is still not the best car by a fair amount," he said. "We still have a lot to improve on. And the foundations of the car are not perfect, so we need to improve that for next year.
"The faster we get, the worse the car gets in the high speed corners, and if we went to places like Spa we would struggle still. But the reliability has been good, the engine has been performing fantastically, and we have definitely got closer.
"If we had this car from the beginning we would have got closer, and if we had started from here we would have just continued to improve."
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