McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has expressed his admiration for his team’s new car, based on what he’s seen so far of its performance and style.

He will be hoping that the new car has got the speed to rival Red Bull’s car in the 2012 season, after seeing Vettel and Webber use their car’s dominance to good effect last season., “Certainly, it will be up to us to be able to surpass it,” said Lewis, talking of Red Bull’s consistently high standard.

“From what I’ve seen, however, the new McLaren seems a lot better than last year’s.” McLaren’s 2012 challenger will be officially unveiled on the 1st of February, before winter testing begins on the 7th in Jerez.

The 2011 season was Hamilton’s first in which he was beaten by a team mate in the final standings, and along with challenging Vettel and Webber, Hamilton must count reclaiming the top spot at McLaren among his most important objectives. Last year though, Button thoroughly deserved the second place he attained, driving extremely consistently throughout the season, and showcasing some of the best overtaking driving of the year. “Jenson is very quick and he’s gathered a strong team of technicians around him,” Hamilton noted. “I’d like to be ahead of him all the time, and I’m not happy if the opposite happens.”

Despite this rivalry, there is a very good relationship between the two competitors, which Lewis was quick to mention. "However, psychologically it’s absolutely not a problem. Besides, he’s an open and cheerful guy who I get along with. It would be nice to fight for the 2012 championship with him: that’s just up to McLaren.”

The McLaren team will be eager to avoid a similar situation to last year, when their complex new exhaust system had to be dropped the evening before the season began, as it became obvious that Red Bull’s car had a clear 2 second advantage over theirs in test laps. If the team provide Hamilton and Button with a competitive car this season, then their could easily be another 4-or-more person title race, possibly with the added bonus of more evenly matched cars.