24/04/2008
NEWS STORY
Following his disappointing outing in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton has promised his fans that there will be no repeats this weekend in Spain, or beyond, as he gets his championship challenge back on track.
Much like some band and singers fail to follow up a successful debut album with a second (and third) album that is even better, much was expected of Hamilton in his second season of F1. However, other than his domination in Melbourne, he appeared to be a shadow of his former self in the next two races, particularly Bahrain.
I approach it in the same way, obviously I won't be making the same mistake again," the Englishman told reporters at the Barcelona track. "Just being here, feeling fresh after a good break from racing, and making sure we come here fresh has been important. I feel good."
Referring to Bahrain, where a mistake on the grid was to cost him dearly, Hamilton said: "We had the car to do a better job and I didn't do it.
"The team were very, very supportive," he added, "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."
Looking ahead to this weekend's race, the McLaren driver is unsure who will set the pace, especially with so many teams introducing updates.
"The top three teams will be quick," he said, "and I guess it will be who is on the best fuel strategy. Who knows whether Ferrari have the quickest car or we have the quickest car, in the test everyone was doing something different. But I feel quite confident and sure that we have got a good package and I feel up for the fight."
Some claim that after the first three flyaway races, when development of the cars is difficult, Barcelona marks the true sign of who's hot and who's not.
"People say that, but I don't particularly agree," he said. "Last year Ferrari were very, very fast here and so were we, but then it is different at every track. 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."