Hamilton expects 'exciting' 2010 season
Hamilton is eager to compete against Schumacher and to begin work with his new team-mate Button
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By Adam Leveridge
McLaren has reshuffled its race engineering team in order to facilitate the arrival of Jenson Button to the outfit alongside Lewis Hamilton. |  |
Tuesday, 12, Jan 2010 11:14
By Adam Leveridge
Lewis Hamilton says 2010 has all the ingredients necessary to make it one of the most exciting seasons in formula one history.
On Monday the 2008 world champion made an appearance in Tottenham Court Road, London with Spanish banking group Santander to launch the rebranding of all Abbey and Bradford and Bingley branches in the UK.
At the event, Hamilton said he is delighted to be teaming up with reigning world champion Jenson Button in 2010 and he is anxious to start working with his compatriot.
"I'm very excited and I've been very fortunate as I've worked with some incredible drivers and I very much welcome Jenson to the team," Hamilton said in an interview with the BBC.
"What he did last year was incredible and I think what he has done in his career is remarkable.
"I haven't had the chance to meet up yet - I've been away training, he's been away training - but this month we will get to do our first bit of work together and I'm sure we'll get on very well.
"Clearly we both want to go into the season on the right foot and we will be working together to push the team together.
"I think what we'll do is feed off each other and learn a huge amount off one another and what you see when two good drivers work together and head in the same direction, towards the same goal, is they push the team forward twice as fast."
Hamilton also expressed delight at the return of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher to the cockpit of an F1 car with Mercedes GP.
The McLaren driver said the addition of Schumacher to the F1 grid will go a long way to making 2010 one of the most exciting seasons in the sport's history and he is eager to race against him.
"I had a feeling he would come back and I think it's incredible for the sport and I really do think 2010 could be one of the most exciting seasons in F1 yet," said Hamilton.
"I think this year it's very difficult to know who's going to be at the front and you won't know until you get to the first race.
"But, definitely, because there is such a wide range of talent and especially with having Schumacher back - he's a seven-time world champion - I think it's exciting for all the drivers to have him with us because what he has achieved is just incredible.
"We will all be proud to be on the same track as him but, of course, we want to beat him."
Looking back at 2009, Hamilton said he learnt a lot of lessons from the mistakes he made and the misfortune he suffered, and he acknowledges that, while he feels in the best shape of his life, there is still room for improvement.
"I'll always be learning and I'll always take inspiration from Nelson Mandela. I know him now and he's 91 years old and he always tells me, 'I'm still learning'," said Hamilton.
"I'm 25 and clearly I'll continue to learn and it just shows that I'll learn something new everyday. I try to take it day by day."