With three races left to run in 2010, McLaren’s title-winning rhetoric has turned a corner.<\/p>\n
After Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are now 28 and 31 points respectively behind the leader Mark Webber, moving Hamilton to admit that even a winning streak through to November’s Abu Dhabi finale might not be enough now.<\/p>\n
“Podiums won’t do it,” he said after a nightmare weekend in Japan, having nursed a second gearbox problem of the event to the chequered flag with an ear infection.<\/p>\n
“Wins will get it if the others have problems.\u00a0 But if Red Bull finish all the races then it’s a walkover,” added Briton Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Button is also downbeat about defending his world championship after Japan.<\/p>\n
“If we don’t turn up in Korea with some good improvements to get us near the Red Bulls, it is almost impossible,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I would like to think we don’t have to hope Red Bull crash or have reliability issues and we have a car to challenge them.\u00a0 But when they have the pace they had here, they can cruise it,” added Button.<\/p>\n
Closer to Webber’s lead – and level-pegging with Sebastian Vettel’s 14 point deficit – is Fernando Alonso, who remains confident of winning his first title at the wheel of a Ferrari.<\/p>\n
“We are convinced that this was the worst track of the remaining races for us,” said the Spaniard after finishing third in Japan.<\/p>\n
“To be world champion I need one more win and two podiums,” Alonso is quoted by La Stampa.<\/p>\n
Also smiling after Suzuka is pole sitter and winner Vettel, despite admitting that his Australian teammate is now tantalisingly close to the title.<\/p>\n
“His 14 point lead is of course an advantage,” he said, referring to Webber.<\/p>\n
“If he wins again, it will be difficult for all of us,” German Vettel is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
“But anything can still happen.”<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old’s confidence was boosted by the apparent ease with which he won in Japan.<\/p>\n
“Without sounding arrogant,” he said, “I would say I always had Mark under control.<\/p>\n
“I could see him all the time,” Vettel told Bild newspaper.\u00a0 “He was one, two or three seconds behind.\u00a0 Every time he came a bit closer, I went on the gas a bit more.<\/p>\n
“It’s looking okay.\u00a0 If I win the next three races, everything will be fine, so that must be my goal,” he said.<\/p>\n
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