Lewis Hamilton is training as hard as possible on the run-up to the 2012 F1 season. That is according to McLaren Managing Director Jonathan Neale, who believes the 2008 World Champion is out to prove his abilities to himself more than anybody else.
Hamilton entered Formula 1 with McLaren in 2007, missing out on the title by a single point before grabbing the crown by the same margin a year later. However, final classifications of one fourth place and two fifths have come after generally difficult seasons over the last three years. He has spent part of this January skiing in North America’s Rocky Mountains (top).
“I'm speaking to him most weeks,” Neale is quoted as saying to BBC Sport. “He's getting himself together. He's winter training really hard and he's in the right place, doing the things he needs to be doing. What he needs to do is get himself in the car. He's only got something to prove to himself - he's his own biggest critic.
“He puts extremely high demands on himself and we at the team are here to support him. It's a tough business, you've got to get the job done.”
Despite delivering several more outstanding performances in 2011, Hamilton’s campaign was blighted by several on-track collisions, not least with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
“One of the things we measure is our did-not-score rate,” Neale continues. “If we had a good car that was capable of scoring good points in that race and we didn't, we go back and ask ourselves why.”
Jenson Button will be the first driver to test McLaren’s new MP4-27 in Jerez, meaning Hamilton steps in on the third and fourth days of the first test in early February.
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