Hamilton still wary of Ferrari threat

Although a development push by his McLaren team appears to have edged the MP4-23 ahead of rivals Ferrari in pure pace terms, Hamilton says he is not taking anything for granted about his prospects for the Hungaroring.

"I'm wary about making any strong predictions," he said in a team preview ahead of the next round of the championship. "Yes, we were strong in the last two races, but we encountered difficulties in the two before that, so it's impossible to call it this weekend.

"All I can say is that our car feels fantastic at the moment and I'm really enjoying driving it: it feels like you can keep fine-tuning it to extract more performance from it, which is a fantastic feeling for any racing driver."

He added: "I don't go into this weekend surfing any particular wave of confidence: it's such a different type of circuit that it's difficult for anybody to feel certain about their chances."

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh sees no reason, however, why the team cannot target a repeat of Hamilton's success there last year.

"The two circuits on the calendar that most resemble the characteristics of the Hungaroring are, bizarrely, Montreal, which is dusty and low-grip, and Monte Carlo, which requires a high-downforce set-up to cope with the minimal straights and numerous low-speed corners," he explained.

"The reality is that we were reasonably competitive at both those circuits. While it has been true to say that one of the key strengths of our car is its pace in high-speed corners, we've done a lot of work to the package to strengthen its weak spots.

"At Silverstone, we were comfortable with our pace through the last sector, and at Hockenheim, we were comfortably quickest through the stadium section of the track, which is tight and reliant on good mechanical grip.

"We won in Hungary last season and travel to Budapest confident that we have strengthened the weaknesses of our package. Nonetheless, we are fully prepared for a battle with our rivals, whom we can never under-estimate."

Hamilton has also vowed to maintain his race-by-race approach to the championship, despite the closeness of this year's title battle.

"It's easy to say that you'll treat each race with a certain amount of respect. But the reality is that I haven't changed my style: it seems to work for me and I enjoy pushing hard to achieve a good result. That's when I feel I am operating at my maximum and it's potentially dangerous to start thinking about changing your approach at this point in the season.

"I'll be honest: my approach has served me fairly well so far and I'd need to give it some serious thought before attempting to change it. Let's just say it will be business as usual in Hungary."