Although Lewis Hamilton is not expecting a repeat of last year's Chinese GP glory, the Brit heads to Shanghai hopeful that McLaren's new upgrades will move the team in the right direction.
Last year Hamilton clinched the victory in the Chinese GP but so far this season McLaren haven't looked capable of winning anything despite Hamilton finishing in the top eight in both Australia and Malaysia before being excluded from the former.
The team, though, is heading to Shanghai with new upgrades for their sluggish and ill-handling MP4-24, which their defending World Champion is hoping will be the start of an improved run for himself and the team.
"I really enjoy racing in Shanghai - the track is a good blend of fast and slow stuff and it throws up a few nice challenges for the drivers," said Hamilton.
"Finding the right set-up is important, you need speed and balance through the high-speed corners but decent mechanical grip for the hairpins.
"We got it spot-on last year, and while I don't expect us to enjoy that sort of performance advantage this season, I think we're all looking forward to a good showing.
"Hopefully, some of the upgrades we've added to MP4-24 for this race will have a benefit: it would be very encouraging if we could qualify a little further up the grid and be regularly challenging for points."
Meanwhile, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is confident that his team is heading into the right direction and will soon find themselves in a position to challenge for points on a regular basis.
"We have reasons to be both disappointed and optimistic about our performance in the opening races of the 2009 season: disappointed because we do not yet possess the necessary technical package to enable us to fight with the leaders, but optimistic that our rate of progress is sufficiently rapid that we should be able to fight for points finishes on a regular basis," said Whitmarsh.
"This weekend's race will see a number of new components introduced to MP4-24, and while we do not expect them to radically transform the car's potential, they should move us a little closer to the front than we saw in the opening two races."
Source : Planet F1
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