Rate it!

12 votes

Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton turned his thoughts to 2010 after Turkish Grand Prix qualifying showed his McLaren as far off the pace as ever.

Hamilton is 42 points behind championship-leading compatriot Jenson Button after six races and his hopes of reducing the gap virtually disappeared at Istanbul Park when he qualified 16th with the Brawn driver on the front row.

The 24-year-old has suffered with an ill-handling car that former Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan described as "quite simply hopeless, possibly the worst that McLaren have ever designed".

Hamilton, who has taken no points from the last two races after crashing in the first stage of qualifying in Monaco and struggling in Spain, fell short of saying McLaren should bin the season and focus on 2010.

However he said the Mercedes-powered team must ensure they were not in the same position next year.

"We're under no illusion," he said. "We're not sitting here saying that we're going to win the next 10 races and all of a sudden at the next race our car is going to be the best and we're going to beat the Brawns.

"We're not silly. We know we've got a package which we are working as hard as we can to improve, but I think we have to be realistic.

"While still focusing on this year and trying to improve, we have to make sure we don't make the same mistakes next year and that we come out with a better package to elevate ourselves towards the championship."

"You learn from mistakes, and we need to understand the car and where it is wrong, and was wrong in the design," added the Briton.

"It is still an important learning curve for us this year, so we are going to keep on learning and we hope at some stage it gets better, but we can't promise anything."

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who took over from long-term principal Ron Dennis in March, responded to Jordan's criticisms with his own perspective on a car that the team knew was flawed long before the season started.

"It's very kind of him," he said. "I've been involved in some bad cars actually in my career, and I haven't tried to rank them.

"This was a car that by anyone's view was competitive in Monaco. I think that it's got some clear weaknesses and that's what's giving us a problem.

"At the moment it isn't competitive, it is not where we need to be. We've got to make sure it's better."

McLaren have said they expect a major upgrade for the German Grand Prix in July but, with Hamilton's home British Grand Prix at Silverstone next up, they were pulling out all the stops at the factory.

However Hamilton said the team should take care.

"I don't think we should rush anything," he said. "It's better that we take our time to refine it. It's not like we can claw back 60 points. We will bounce back next year."

Reuters