Hamilton and McLaren hid their game during practice
The 2008 world champion reflects on the winter tests conducted by his team and reveals that he drove with the necessary fuel throughout the winter to avoid revealing too much of the MP4-27's potential. The McLaren driver also talks about his recent move to Monaco, where he found a living environment more to his liking.
With the MP4-27, McLaren aimed to have a much calmer winter than in 2011 and especially to start the 2012 season with a bang. As the inaugural Grand Prix of the season approaches, Lewis Hamilton, like the rest of his team, is displaying a certain optimism that starkly contrasts with the pessimism the team no longer hid just a year ago: « I think it’s because there’s such a difference compared to last year’s tests, when we were barely managing to complete laps before heading to the first race. [This winter, in Barcelona,] on the last day, I did 115 laps. That’s a lot of kilometers, so it was a positive way to end the winter tests. I think we were one of the teams that did the most laps. I also maintained a good amount of fuel throughout all the tests. I wasn’t too concerned about our position. What matters is when the first race arrives,” declares the Englishman to the Guardian.
Like a large majority of the paddock and F1 observers, the 2008 world champion expects a more competitive season than 2011: « It seems that it could be different from the last two seasons where we had Red Bull that was faster than anyone else. Some teams have different solutions for the exhausts. Ferrari, Red Bull and ourselves have a similar approach, while others, like Lotus, have a different solution, as does Mercedes, and they seem fast nonetheless. »
For the McLaren driver, everyone’s ability to develop their car could make the difference: It will be a battle for those who have the design that offers the greatest margin for development and how far we can go. It will be interesting to see who will be fast and who will not be.
Furthermore, Lewis Hamilton, who had announced back in 2007 his intention to move to Switzerland to gain a bit of tranquility, decided at the start of the 2012 season to relocate to Monaco in search of more excitement: I just wanted a change. It was a bit boring where I used to live; there weren’t many people around, so it was great to move. There are more people I know where I live now, and quite a few drivers. There’s more social life, the weather is better, it’s by the sea, so it’s overall better. There is definitely a sense of well-being [in Monaco], confides the English driver, who should have more than one opportunity, outside of the Grand Prix, to run into Felipe Massa, also a Monaco resident.
