Source Yahoo - Eurosport news
by Jamie O'Leary
Lewis Hamilton believes 2008 will see a fresh start for him and McLaren, after the controversy that plagued them last year.
2007 saw the British superstar's relationship with team-mate Fernando Alonso deteriorate rapidly after the mid-point of the season as both battled - unsuccessfully - for the world title.
And, it also saw the team fined £50.2 million and thrown out of the constructors' championship over the 'spygate' saga.
But, with a new team-mate in the shape of Finn Heikki Kovalainen, and a new car, the MP4-23, which was launched this week in Stuttgart, Hamilton thinks a more harmonious season is in store.
"Heikki and I have known each other for a while now, Hamilton said. "And our friendship has grown over the years. I find it very easy to get on with him; we have a very mutual feeling between one another.
"With certain people you ask questions and they give you one-word answers, whereas other people make the conversation. With Heikki I don't make the conversation he's happy to start and we can just talk for ages. I think we have very similar views he loves the car without traction control and racing wheel-to-wheel, and that I think just makes everything a little bit simpler.
"We are both highly competitive and both want to beat each other, but in doing that we want to do the best job we can individually and also push the team forward and just enjoy the racing. At the end of the day that's what we are here to do."
Hamilton won four races in his opening season and missed out on becoming the first rookie world champion in Formula One history by just a point to Kimi Raikkonen.
But, despite this, he shrugged off the suggestion that he will start the season as the de-facto number one driver against the so far winless Kovalainen, 26.
"I don't believe I'm starting as the team's first driver," he added. "We expect to have the exact same opportunity, and I believe that's what we are going to be given. As team-mates we are going to push to beat each other, and push the team forward.
"We both want to win the world championship, and even if one of us is finishing higher or being more consistent or winning more, it doesn't mean he's the lead driver. I think as you saw at the end of last season, even though I was leading the world championship, we were both given the same opportunities.
"At the end of the day I want to qualify on pole and Heikki wants to qualify on pole. If he beats me I know he's done a better job, so I have to go away and try to understand why, then come back and try to beat him the next time. I think we both have that same appreciation of how good one another are, and I honestly don't see there are going to be any problems throughout the season."
Hamilton will have his first run in the MP4-23 at Jerez on January 10, one day after Kovalainen and test driver Pedro de la Rosa kick off things at the Spanish circuit.