Lewis Hamilton has conducted a race-by-race post mortem on last season as he attempts to end Sebastian Vettel's ambitions to make it a hat-trick of Formula One world titles. Last year was the worst of Hamilton's five seasons in F1, his wins in China, Germany and Abu Dhabi overshadowed by mistakes in Monaco, Canada, Belgium, Singapore and India.
But the 2008 F1 champion prepares for Sunday's opener in Melbourne having examined in painful detail all his errors of last year, while in the US in the winter. "I did that over there," Hamilton said. "I analysed races and watched some of them, went through different graphs of race traces, tried to see where my strengths were – the races where I was quite strong and the races where I can improve.
"And there's definitely quite a few where I can improve. It's more, I guess, all about being in the right place at the right time. In Malaysia, for example, I flat-spotted a tyre which then led to me having to use the wrong set of tyres which then led to me running seventh which then led to me having a penalty with Fernando [Alonso]. It's just trying to avoid those pitfalls."
There were, of course, more than just driver errors from Hamilton last season. He risked alienating himself from his McLaren team by being too critical of the car and casting covetous eyes in the direction of Red Bull in Montreal. Some were concerned that his celebrity lifestyle, including frequent trips to Los Angeles to see his girlfriend, the pop star Nicole Scherzinger, were distracting him from his work.
But the more focused Hamilton will attempt to win a second world title this year – and if he gets it right he is still Vettel's most plausible challenger, for he is the most obviously gifted driver on the grid.
He said: "I hope that it's a new phase, a new stage in my life, but the only way to know that is from the results. I really can't predict what's going to happen. Every year you prepare yourself in a certain way and then you get to the first race and lots of things happen after that.
"I just need to take each race as it comes and keep my head screwed on and my feet on the ground for the whole year. I'd love to be sitting here with three world championships under my belt. But it's not the case. But I definitely don't regret what's happened and the experiences I've had. I think I'm better for it and hopefully that will help with future races."
He admits that he had personal issues to deal with when he ran into problems – first with other drivers and then with stewards – in Monaco. "I had a lot going on in my life at the time," he said. "If you aren't thinking clearly your decisions are overshadowed, you can't make clear decisions."
Crucially, Hamilton's challenge also depends on the quality of his car, which has been uneven in recent years. "If I'm really honest I'm pretty sure that if the car was the same as it was in 2007 and 2008 I think you'd be seeing a different person sitting here, but that wasn't the case.
"In 2009 I wasn't too keen to get into it. But the last couple of years the cars were not too bad – but this one does feel better than it did this time last year. I hope that counts for something."
Hamilton will be one of six world champions taking part in Sunday's race. "Winning a world championship like this one, with so many great world champions out there – it'll definitely be one of the most valuable," he said.
The enthusiasm of the boy racer is still there, he says – and he went to some lengths to prove it by taking F1 journalists for a white-knuckle ride in the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 at Dunsfold Aerodrome.
"I definitely still have the same excitement as when I started racing. Even today, messing around in that car [the McLaren], I was still very much a kid with a new toy," Hamilton added. "I can't wait to get back into the car. I enjoyed all the testing and each day I wanted to do more and more laps, but we ran out of time. I'm really looking forward to getting back out and racing, especially in Australia, which is one of my favourite places."
