Hamilton was second in his first season in F1 and won the title the year after

By Andrew Benson

Lewis Hamilton is confident he and McLaren can improve on 2010 and win the world championship next season.

The 2008 champion was second in last week's final race in Abu Dhabi but was fourth overall as his challenge faded in the last few races of the season.

"We already have our eye on both titles for 2011," Hamilton said. "We can be even more competitive than in 2010.

"We learned a lot as a team and I developed as a driver - that will stand us in good stead for next season."

Hamilton was one of four drivers to go into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a chance of becoming world champion.

The title ultimately went to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel after the challenges of Hamilton, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber faded.

Hamilton said it had been an "honour" to be going into the final race of the season still in championship contention for the third time in his four seasons in F1.

He led the championship for the second time after winning the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.

We're growing all the time as a team - I had a new race engineer in 2010 and with one season under our belts, we can be even stronger next year Lewis Hamilton

But retirements following collisions in the next two races in Italy and Singapore effectively ended his challenge.

His chances were only mathematical in Abu Dhabi - Hamilton would effectively have had to win the race with the other three contenders suffering major problems to come out on top.

But he said that there was no specific incident that had led him to believe his title chances were over - it had just been a slow realisation that 2010 was not going to be his year.

"We saw throughout the summer that the Red Bull was the car to beat," Hamilton said on his website. "And even though we brought a lot of developments to every race, it became clear that they were able to react equally, and that made it extremely hard for us to close the gap.

"Of course, my non-finishes at Monza and Singapore didn't help my momentum, but that was also true of my mechanical retirements in Spain and Hungary.

"Overall, I don't think it's worthwhile to look at the 'what ifs' of a season, because every driver has moments when he could have done better, or would have done something different, so you just have to accept what you have and make the best of it."

He said he believed McLaren had a solid foundation from which to develop a competitive car in 2011, and that the fact that his team-mate Jenson Button now had a year under his belt with the team would also be a help.

"It's just a feeling that we learned a lot as a team this year - we had a very positive atmosphere within the organisation from the start of the year, and we only built on that during the season," Hamilton said.

"Jenson's arrival made us a stronger team and I think our joint input helped us to stay in the hunt until the very end.

"Obviously, our 2010 car was quite a significant update of our '09 car, but now I think we have a very good baseline from which to evolve this car into 2011.

"We're growing all the time as a team - I had a new race engineer in 2010 and with one season under our belts, we can be even stronger next year.

"I think Jenson will be have a very positive influence on our development over the winter so that we can start testing the new car very aggressively when testing resumes in February."

Button joined McLaren for 2010 after winning the drivers' title in 2009 with the Brawn team, which were renamed Mercedes for this season.

The 30-year-old won two of the first four races in 2010 and remained in title contention until the penultimate race in Brazil.

Button, also talking on his website, said: "There's lot I think we can do to make this team stronger and better for the new season.

"We've got a year's worth of experience under our belts, we've pushed hard all season, and I think we can take that all away and learn from it over the winter.

"It's really been a fantastic year.

"It's hard to think that I only joined this team at the start of the year - I've been made to feel so welcome, and such a part of the team, that it feels like I've been here far longer.

"Obviously, the highlights for me were the two wins earlier in the season - in Australia and China - but there have been plenty of other highlights.

"I had some very strong races in Turkey and Canada, and almost took another win at Monza. There are plenty of positives to take away from the year."

Button said his main focus before the start of the 2011 season in Bahrain on 13 March would be to improve his form in qualifying, where he struggled at times this season.

"This year, I think I've had some very strong Sunday afternoons," Button said. "But I probably haven't always made life as easy as I would like on Saturdays.

"And we know how crucial that is in modern Formula 1 - if I can get qualifying sorted, then I think we can have an even stronger season next year."

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