“We don't even remember what happened in Brazil last year. If you want to make comparisons we left China (in 2007) having not won the race, this year we're leaving having won the race, so it can swing around all over the place. It's clearly not done, but most likely it's only unreliability that's going to cause us a problem. So we're going to be cautious about tires, rain all sorts of things. But there's nothing to be achieved before Friday in planning for the what ifs,” said McLaren's Ron Dennis.
The Englishman also admitted that, as compared to the same situation last year, Hamilton is better prepared mentally and looks stronger than ever before the Interlagos race. The Brit is currently holding a 7-point lead ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa in the drivers' standings and only needs a 5th place to secure the title.
“You never stop learning. It's so easy to forget that that was his first season and it was a phenomenal season. Why shouldn't this one be better? Is he going to get better? Yes, he is. When you consider the first year performance of all the great drivers, they never came close to his first year performance. When you look at the second year performance of all the great drivers, none of them, as far as I know, had the sort of performance that he has now. He is still getting better. He will continue to get better through the rest of his career,” concluded Dennis.
The British team will take on the Brazilian Grand Prix with a few updates in order to challenge Ferrari's supremacy at the Sao Paolo circuit for the past few years. Nevertheless, Hamilton is due to start with the same engine used by McLaren in Shanghai – as he won't benefit from the 'joker' engine rule in Brazil – while also using a 3-race-old gearbox. It was in fact a gearbox problem that cost Hamilton the title last year.
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