Lewis Hamilton is playing down the importance of out-pacing fellow team-mate Fernando Alonso at testing in Jerez last week. Despite a crash, Hamilton has shown good performance in the pre-season testing and even managed to get the edge over Alonso on the second day in Jerez last week.
However, Hamilton has insisted that he is not reading too much into that performance – both were on different testing programmes which could have affected track times.
“It’s really difficult to compare these things,” he explained. “I do not read into them as we are both working on different programmes and focusing on developing these. This makes it very difficult to say who was fastest, but we are very close and the test was pretty good. I covered more than 100 laps on both days which demonstrates that we are getting there with the reliability, so it is looking pretty good.”
Hamilton is also using every change he has to prepare himself for the forthcoming season; if he isn’t testing, he ensures he visits the McLaren factory.
“I am working hard,” he said. “And the hard work really shows in the results. I am at the McLaren Technology Centre every day during the week when I am not testing. I spend as much time as possible with my engineer really studying the data and learning as much as possible which is all seems to be flowing nicely. I am just taking it all step by step and I think that this is the best approach.”
Hamilton is also full of praise for Alonso, who he thinks can teach him a lot. “It is great to be in the same team as him as I can learn from him” Hamilton stated. “When I look at the data I am able to see where I am losing and where I can gain and I think when we go to tracks like Australia and Malaysia where I have not been before, with his experience, it is going to make it a lot easier for me to learn the circuit.”
