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McLaren nose design a match for rivals - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton completed two days of testing in the McLaren MP4-27 earlier this week © Sutton Images

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Lewis Hamilton is confident McLaren's decision not to feature a stepped nose on its new car is not a negative.

Apart from the MP4-27, all the 2012 cars launched so far have been designed with a step in the nose, leading some to question whether McLaren has gone down the wrong path with its smoother design. But after four days behind the wheel at the first two tests Hamilton is not concerned.

"It's not looking like a negative," he said. "I think we have the downforce on the car, or at least similar downforce to others. The question is always finding the balance and where you have the downforce, whether you have it on the front or have it on the rear or the middle of the car. Entry of corners, mid-corner, exits of corners - it's always a balance to manoeuvre the design of the car so that you get the best balance throughout the corner. When I speak to my engineers, that's what I'm trying to coordinate with them so that when they go back they make some shuffling around to transfer some downforce to the rear or whatever it is."

He said the combination of the new Pirelli tyres and the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers means the focus is on improving downforce at the rear.

"I think we've got a little bit more front end in the tyres this year," Hamilton added. "I don't really feel the rears have improved in terms of grip but the fronts have. So then you've got more front and perhaps need less front wing maybe than you did last year. Plus we've lost the blow diffuser so we've lost quite a lot at the rear and we're trying to offload any at the front to the rear."

Overall Hamilton is confident that McLaren have a car capable of fighting at the front.

"Last year I think I struggled to do 30 laps or even 10 laps without the exhaust failing. So to do a whole day with 120 laps, I can't remember the last time I did that many laps. I definitely feel in a much more comfortable place and confident that we can be at the front fighting with the guys at the top."

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