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Formula One
F1: We Hope To Be Quick Everywhere Says Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is the World Championship leader by a narrow margin over Mark Webber heading into Monza...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted September 09, 2010   Monza (ITA)
Lewis Hamilton has three wins this season in Formula One. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Lewis Hamilton says he hopes that the McLaren will be competitive at some of the higher downforce tracks that are coming up, despite the car’s disappointing form at similar venues.

The car has outpaced the Red Bulls at Montreal and Spa, and is expected to be ultra competitive this weekend at Monza. But Hamilton says the team has been working hard on its higher downforce package and thus this won’t necessarily be the team’s last chance to win on performance.

“If you’d looked a few races ago, you may have said that,” said Hamilton. “But we’re working very hard on improving the car. With some of the rule changes I’m hoping that some of the others will come a little bit closer to us. So maybe we’re more evenly matched now, and we’re trying to improve our high downforce performance, so hopefully in Singapore and Suzuka we'll be more competitive than we would have.

“In races like the last one, for example, we learned a lot about the car, so I’m hoping that when we arrive there we will be able to compete with them. We may not be as fast, but we won’t know until we get there. I am hoping that this weekend especially we are ‘quick, quick.' I don’t know how we will be at Singapore.
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“They are strong circuits for myself. I feel good in the car in those places. But [it’s true] our higher downforce package has not been working properly; it’s not been very efficient, so we just have to optimize it properly. I think we can do it.”

Hamilton says that the title is still up for grabs, even though some of the main contenders dropped back after poor races in Spa.

“There’s still 150 points available. It’s a bit too early to say," he said. "It’s still wide open pretty much. Obviously we still have a bit of a cushion, which is nice, but as you’ve seen, the championship goes up and down with people’s performances. I’m trying to remain consistent and wait and see.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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