Hamilton: McLaren is only third best car

Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren currently has only the third quickest car in Formula 1 - but he still thinks it can be made fast enough to win the world championship

Although the Briton leads the title standings heading into this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton is under no illusions that his outfit needs to make big development steps to improve its current challenger.

And with Ferrari having delivered a 1-2 finish in the German GP, Hamilton believes his team is no longer Red Bull Racing's closest challenger.

"I have said since Valencia, since they [Ferrari] had their upgrade, that they are faster than us," Hamilton said at the Hungaroring. "Even though it didn't show in that race weekend and it didn't show in Silverstone, they have been faster than us for a while.

"We have been the third fastest team for some time now, and we still are. We have to work our backsides off to catch them and keep getting our upgrade parts.

"At the moment we are still behind. Of course it is a concern - but we are still leading the championship and we can still get great results and still score good points until we get that next step. Then hopefully we can bag some even better points."

Hamilton also thinks that his 14-point lead in the championship standings counts for little - as it will not take much for his rivals to close it down.

"It seems a lot of points, and 14 points in the old system was beautiful," he said. "But it is relevant to 2.5 or three points of the old system, so I have to keep pushing. I am happy I am out in front, but I would rather be there at the end of the year. I have to stay focused."