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Will this be McLaren's year? Naysayers are many, after the lackluster showing of the McLaren F1 team in the 2006 Grand Prixs. However, McLaren F1 the team is in full action mode. Fernando Alonso, current world champion, had his seat fitting done in the MP4-22 recently.
McLaren will launch their 2007 challenger the MP4-22 Valencia on Monday 15th January. Expect a photo gallery from us on that day, and bookmark this page, although it will not run on a test track until Alonso gives it a shakedown at the city's track on Wednesday. Fernando Alonso and new driver Lewis Hamilton will test the MP4-22 later from January 24th to 26th, post-launch.
Fernando Alonso must be feeling the butterflies in his stomach - considering McLaren's underperformance even with the superfast Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel in 2006, thats pretty understandable. What he must be thinking is, will McLaren be the car that will put an end to his reign as the Formula One world champion? McLaren's history too does not offer much by way of confidence.
McLaren too had its own jitters recently. According to McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh told the media that he was worried that Renault's success with Fernando Alonso at the wheel for 2 years purely a result of them building their car around the driver's peculiarities. For example, Fernando Alonso has a rather aggressive technique for turn-ins. And what if Renault had just built their car to utilise that driving style to the maximum? Anyway, his fears were unfounded, he said, when Fernando Alonso tested with McLaren F1 just before Christmas holidays. Seems Fernando can drive a McLaren well too -- so now all that McLaren F1 has to do is to prov ide him a car that can do serious battle with Ferrari and Renault this year.
That brings us to Lewis Hamilton, the excellent rookie who will run alongside world champion Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton is a driver who came up through the McLaren Young Driver Programme. He signed a contract with McLaren in 1998 when he was only 13 - and the contract contained a future option on him being able to get an F1 seat someday!
So Lewis Hamilton is one guy we are eagerly looking forward to. In case some of you don't know, he is black. This might be politically incorrect to specifically mention in some countries - we don't care. It is a big thing because is the first black F1 driver we will see, and we at DWS personally are thrilled to see such stuff. We were equally thrilled when our own Narain Karthikeyan managed to get a seat last year in F1.
Former formula one champion Damon Hill recently said that Lewis Hamilton will get probaly the grace of half a season to prove himself. He is racing alongside a double world champion, and playing second fiddle will not help at all. Let's see how it goes. Best of Luck, Fernando, and welcome to the mad world of F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton!
yes, go on fernando and lewis,, i believe that you two drivers are the best among the rest,., its a great start for the great team and great drivers,, go on beat the ferrari, show them that you are now the best team at this time.you do it before in renault at this time you can do it again fernando.. shoe to schumi that you are the best driver not him... goodluck for the race.. im your biggest fun in philippines.. see you soon..