Hamilton unlikely to get British update

McLaren is bracing itself for a tough time at Silverstone this weekend, with the high-speed swoops of the Northamptonshire track expected to expose the downforce deficiencies of the MP4-24.

There had been a slight chance that a major upgrade package originally planned for the German Grand Prix would be brought forward for this race, but AUTOSPORT understands that that plan is now likely to be shelved.

However, the team is still working on some other car upgrades to help improve matters for Silverstone - with Hamilton vowing to keep doing his bit to help the team get back near the front of the grid.

Although Hamilton is under no illusions about the troubles he is going to face on home ground, 12 months on from his brilliant victory, he has said that the last thing he will do is throw the towel in.

"You never know what is going to happen," he said. "Maybe there will be some new parts, or the team will understand what is slowing us down in the high speed corners - you just never know.

"You always have to remain hopeful and keep the faith, and hope that it gets better. Realistically, we don't have the pace to go out and win, and arriving into a race that we arrived at last year and won to now, going in hoping to get into the top 10, is definitely a difficult approach.

"But we will keep our heads down and keep battling away and just hassling it at the moment to get to the front."

Hamilton's fortunes this year are a total transformation from last year, where he delivered a famous win that kick-started his world championship campaign after two difficult races.

And even though he would far rather be fighting at the front, Hamilton says his current troubles are not without some benefit.

"You definitely learn from these things, and you continue to learn and grow about how to deal with them," he said. "So for sure it has not been a wasted experience."