Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton ‘really excited’ by title defence

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Lewis Hamilton says he is “really excited” to be able to try and defend his drivers’ championship with Mercedes this season.

Hamilton’s first title in 2008 was followed by a disappointing season as McLaren’s car in 2009 was uncompetitive early on, preventing him from putting up a serious title defence. With Mercedes heading in to the new season as heavy favourites once again, Hamilton says it is a position he is relishing.

“I don’t really remember what I felt in 2009, but I can assure you that it wasn’t good, especially when I first drove the car,” Hamilton said. “Definitely for me it’s a better feeling this year, but I’m in a different place in my life and having seen what the team has done over the winter break and into this new car, it’s massively inspiring for me.

“I’m really excited and I’m sure that we will have the chance to at least fight for what we achieved last year.”

However, Hamilton says starting the season in better fashion than a year ago - when he retired and team-mate Rosberg won - is not essential.

“I don’t see a particular exaggerated importance [compared] to any other time. Of course you come here and you’d like to start on the right foot, as I did want to last year, but there is a long, long way to go so it’s not the most important start of the year.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.