Hamilton to debut new McLaren on February 10

Lewis Hamilton will be the first McLaren driver to test the 2011-specification MP4-26 next month.
The British team said Jenson Button is then scheduled to drive on day two of the second group test at Jerez, according to Reuters journalist Alan Baldwin on Twitter.

McLaren will not reveal the 2011 car until after the first pre-season test at Valencia, where test driver Gary Paffett will kick off the winter programme in a modified 2010-spec MP4-25.

2008 world champion Hamilton was at McLaren’s Woking headquarters on Wednesday to drive in the simulator.

“(2011) car feels good, never know how others will be but I’m happy with where we are,” the 26-year-old said on his IAmLewis4Real Twitter account.

The Sun newspaper said Hamilton, with a new personal trainer this year in Finn Antti Vierula, has returned from a training holiday in Colorado to attend a team training camp with Button.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh revealed that, ahead of the gruelling 20-race calendar this year, Hamilton and Button were given a long period of vacation.

“I told my colleagues last year, Let’s give our drivers six weeks in which I am not going to ring them — and I don’t want anyone else to ring them either,” he said.

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