Lewis Hamilton: “We are as competitive as the Red Bulls”

Lewis Hamilton was in bullish mood after McLaren showed impressive speed in Korea, helped by a new rear wing package.

The McLarens as expected were quick on the straights in the first sector, although the gap closed in the afternoon as rivals experimented with downforce levels. Having been fastest in the morning and beaten only by Webber and Alonso in the afternoon Hamilton expects to be right on the pace through the rest of the weekend.

“The first session was very interesting, it was the dirtiest circuit I’ve ever been on,” said Hamilton. “It was so dusty, it was incredible. Everyone was having trouble just sliding around a lot. But the evolution has been dramatic, I think. People were just speeding up by seconds per lap. Going into P2 the track was looking a lot better.

“There was still a lot of dust and stuff around, especially off line. But nonetheless the track feels quite good. It’s very fast, you need to have a very efficient downforce level and good car here. But I feel quite happy with the car. It was quite strong today. We had a couple of problems in the last practice there but generally not feeling too bad.

“We are generally very quick on the straights, which is good. And seem to be quite competitive also in the mid sector. Our rear wing is working, we’ve got some new components here, so that’s a positive.

“We’ve got a few more new bits on the car. They were in Japan, but we didn’t have all the bits together to be able to put them on. We finally got them on and today spent a lot of time trying to get as much running on those components and try to get feedback.”

Hamilton says that this is a track where the driver can have more of an impact: “We are very competitive, as competitive as the Red Bulls at least, so that’s a good thing. The car feels good, so we’ll do what we can with that. It’s still very, very close. The Renaults look quick, the Ferrari looks quick, and also the Red Bull looks quick. The cars are fairly equal maybe this weekend, maybe it’s down to what driver can pull out the most time.”