Lewis Hamilton is warming up for the new grand prix season in bullish mood, claiming that he expects Mclaren, despite all its trials and tribulations last year, to be more than a match for nemesis
Ferrari.
Meeting the British media in the build-up to next weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the second-year driver insisted that this year's MP4-23 will overcome the hurdles placed in its path by last year's espionage row and allow him and new team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen to take the fight to world champion
Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari sidekick
Felipe Massa.
The two teams have frequently been equally matched in pre-season testing, although Ferrari has appeared to have a marginal upper hand on certain tracks, and Hamilton was quick to dismiss suggestions that Raikkonen, in particular, would be able to ease to a second title.
"With the package we have, I doubt it very much that Kimi will run away with it," he was quoted by the
Daily Telegraph newspaper, "What Ferrari have is a very good car but, if you look at last year in Barcelona testing, there was a bigger gap, three to four tenths between us. This year, I think it is a lot closer. We have equal cars."
"I think, with the package we have, we will be strong, and it's interesting that they didn't always test at the same tracks as we did," he added in the
Guardian, "Although they were quick in Bahrain, I think that Barcelona offers a more accurate representation of competitiveness. I think this year it will be a lot closer."
With a year's experience under his belt and free from the distractions of having double world champion
Fernando Alonso as his team-mate, Hamilton also feels that he is better tuned to the rigours of an
F1 season.
"This year is going to be different," he said, having shown reporters around his training environment in
McLaren's Woking gym facility, "I don't have any doubts that I am going to do a good job, but it means something different. It means I want to win it.
