NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – World champion Lewis Hamilton is delighted his Hungarian Grand Prix win has lifted the gloom around McLaren and hopes it has turned around a frustrating season for the team.
The 24-year-old ended McLaren’s 10 races without a podium finish last weekend.
“The most important thing is we turned it around,” Hamilton told reporters at a promotional event in New Delhi yesterday.
“We’ve to win all seven races to have a fighting chance of winning (the title).”
Fellow Briton Jenson Button leads the drivers’ standing on 70 points, with Australian Mark Webber (51.5) and Germany’s Sebastian Vettel (47) of Red Bull behind him.
Hamilton lies eighth on 19 points but has not entirely given up hope.
“We’ve more improvements coming, we’ve to just keep pushing and who knows what’s going to happen.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next race. In Valencia, I had a great race there last year, so, hopefully we’ll be competitive,” said Hamilton who finished second behind Felipe Massa in 2008.
The F1 championship takes a break until Valencia on Aug. 23.
Leader Button has struggled in the last three races in Britain, Germany and Hungary with his Red Bull rivals breathing down his neck. Hamilton said: “You’re seeing the other teams starting to struggle a little bit, but I think to catch Jenson is gonna be very, very hard.
“He’s already on 70 points and the maximum amount of points I can now achieve is 89,” he added. “He only has to have something like two-and-half points per race, so it should be easy for him really to stay ahead of me.”
Hamilton played a light-hearted game of cricket with winners of a contest by team sponsors, but complained about the heat and humidity in New Delhi, due to hold its inaugural race in 2011.
“I hope (the Delhi race) is in the winter,” he said. “If we had a grand prix in this weather, we would lose so much weight.
“In the last race, I lost 1-1/2 kilos, (but) we lose up to four kilos sometimes.”