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No one looks dominant - Whitmarsh

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McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh does not think any single team will dominate Formula One this year, including his own outfit.

Last year Red Bull won both drivers' and constructors' championships by a significant margin, taking 12 victories from 19 races. But McLaren had a much stronger pre-season testing campaign this year and Whitmarsh believes his team is in a better position to take the fight to Red Bull for both wins and the championship.

"Firstly, the winter has been a better one than last year," he told the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "We went to last year's Australian race having not completed a race distance and having been spectacularly uncompetitive during the winter. Our sense is that we are competitive, certainly internally.

"The bad news is we don't look like we are dominant, but the good news, both for us and the sport, is that no one else looks like they are dominant. We all know and we all say at this time of the year that fuel loads, tyre programmes and test programmes interfere with the ability to judge relative performance, but long runs and race simulations do give a better indication and based upon that, we feel that we are competitive."

He said McLaren had not yet run its new car on low fuel but the early indications suggest it will be quick when qualifying gets underway at Melbourne.

"It may well be that people are sandbagging more than us, but I think ourselves and Red Bull didn't do any proper qualifying simulations," Whitmarsh added. "I assume some others may have run lighter fuel than us, but again you never know. But I think the car has been reliable, the drivers like it and feel quite buoyant in it.

"Positively, we've brought modifications to the car - developments and enhancements - and the car initially responded as we predicted from our analysis and the upgrades delivered the performance and the characteristics that we had expected them to. I think with reliability, a reasonably competitive car and a car that's responding positively and as predicted to changes, all of those things should gear us to feeling we can be competitive this year.

"Aided by a strong team and two very hungry, competitive and fast racing drivers, we should be expecting to win races this year. And if we can win enough of them hopefully that will lead to the championships."

Whitmarsh is confident that McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, who admitted last week that he lost focus at some points last year, will be back at his best and in the mood to take the fight to team-mate Jenson Button.

"I've known him since he was about 11 and I've seen him grow and develop. We talk, obviously, about Formula One racing and what it takes to win, but he's got to enjoy it and if he's going to have a long, sustained and successful career, he's got to have that right balance of enjoying life and enjoying his motor racing and being competitive and focused. You can see in his body language and everything that's happened in testing and how he's conducted himself with the media that, encouragingly for all of us, it suggests that he is definitely focused on beating, firstly his team-mate this year, and hopefully all of the others."

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