New McLaren not ready to win title - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that McLaren’s 2011 car is currently not good enough to win the world championship.

"That doesn’t mean it won’t become a world championship-winning car," he told reporters at the Barcelona test, after completing just 57 laps due to technical problems with the MP4-26.

Earlier, former McLaren driver and British commentator Martin Brundle described the car as "a mess".

"They (commentators) don’t drive it so they don’t know exactly how it is," the 2008 world champion hit back.

"I wouldn’t agree with what he says. The car feels better than last year’s car," insisted Hamilton.

But he reinforced teammate Jenson Button’s admission that it is not up to speed with the pacesetters Red Bull and Ferrari.

"We definitely have the strength within the team to catch up," said Hamilton.

"It isn’t as fast as others are, but two years ago we were two or three seconds off the pace and now we are maybe a second (behind)," he added.