On Wednesday, Lewis Hamilton scored the 4th best time of the day for McLaren, but that result (as unimpressive as it was) did not reflect the true pace of the MP4-26 on the Catalonian track. It was scored at the end of a one-lap qualifying-style run, and after McLaren had experienced some hydraulic and exhaust related problems that kept them from doing a decent race simulation in the morning.
Echoing the comments of his teammate Jenson Button, Ham confirmed everyone's beliefs that McLaren's 2011-spec challenger doesn't look like a championship winning car for the time being. As for the potential to develop into one, the 2008 F1 champion is keeping his hopes up.
“Do I believe I have a car to win the world championship at the moment? I don't. No,” he told the media after the Wednesday running, according to Autosport.
“But that doesn't mean it won't become a world championship-winning car,” he added. “From today, the improvements we've had, it's something that can grow to be better, so as long as we keep pushing in the right direction with the development, and the new things we have coming several races down the line, hopefully they will enable us to close the gap and compete for wins.”
Hamilton added that while yesterday didn't seem like a positive day for McLaren in terms of mileage, some improvements have been made to the car.
“Usually at this time of the year this is when we come with pitstops and one or two race distances a day, but we were nowhere near even completing one. So it was a bit on and off today, it wasn't a great day for us, but in terms of how the car felt there was an improvement with some of the upgrades we have. So that is at least a positive, it's not all negative.”
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