Lewis Hamilton is confident of McLaren getting on terms with Red Bull, after declaring that the Woking-based squad had over-achieved so far this season.
Although Red Bull’s RB6 is widely regarded as the quickest in the field, both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel have been unable to prevent McLaren and its drivers taking the lead in both championships.
As a result, Hamilton believes that McLaren has far outdone its expectations for the first half of the season and is hopeful that the upgrades to its MP4-25 will move the team even closer.
“We’re really happy with the result,” Hamilton is quoted by Autosport as saying. “Overall we’re doing a damn solid job with what we have. We’re not the quickest but the car is good. But we’re over-delivering with the package we have. We’re definitely over-delivering.
“Red Bull are still the quickest. They were over a second quicker in qualifying. I just managed to bring it down to nine tenths, which is huge. And then in the race it was over half a second. We’ve still got a huge amount of time to find in the car.
“But on the lower speed circuits we will be a bit closer to them. Maybe two tenths. But when it’s a high-speed circuit, like this, like Spa maybe, they have a big advantage at the moment. But hopefully in the next race, in the next two races, we should be able to get our upgrades working and we will be with them.”
Hamilton’s second-placed finish in the British Grand Prix extended his championship advantage over team-mate Jenson Button to twelve points, with Red Bull’s Mark Webber a further five adrift.
