Motorsport: McLaren pair are best mates and bitter rivals

Lewis Hamilton looked uncharacteristically awkward on stage on Saturday, as he and new teammate Jenson Button pulled the wraps off McLaren's startling new car.

While the current champion lapped up the limelight with an easy smile, his predecessor looked uncomfortable.

But face to face, his easygoing manner was unchanged as he spoke of the challenge of a returning Michael Schumacher and his old adversary Fernando Alonso, now at Ferrari.

Hamilton was not saying that he doesn't rate Button. Far from it. He revealed he suggested Button's name to McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh last year when the team sought a replacement for Heikki Kovalainen.

"Jenson's the world champion," he said, making it clear that you have to respect anyone who bears that title.

But when you have beaten Alonso in your rookie year of Formula One, you know in your heart that you don't have too much to fear from anyone.

"Fernando is the hardest competitor I've ever raced," Hamilton said. "He's a double world champion, definitely the best I've ever competed against. Jenson is a great guy and we get on really well. He's a phenomenal talent and he's going to want to beat me and vice-versa.

"We are going to push each other all the way. We both need to work as hard as we can to win. Maybe he'll win the first race, maybe I will. We don't even know [if the car will be competitive]."

Button was optimistic about having the two most recent champions racing for the one team. "It's important for us to work together and Lewis understands that," said the man who won the 2009 title with Brawn. "So far we've got on very well. You've got to be best friends with your teammate, but also fierce rivals."

But it is another former champion who could be the greatest challenge to the McLaren pair.

Will the uncompromising bully-boy tactics that stood Schumacher in such good stead against the likes of Damon Hill intimidate Hamilton, a man who really wishes he could have raced against his hero, Ayrton Senna?

"You learn by driving with these people, how they react," Hamilton said. "He'll be tough to overtake but so was Fernando, so was Kimi. I've always looked up to Michael, he's a seven-time champion, and it's great he's back."

But the message is: if I can beat Alonso, I know I can beat Schumacher, and it's not keeping me awake at nights. In private, Hamilton was relaxed and as hungry and aggressive as ever. Everything about his manner said: I am going to win this year.

- INDEPENDENT