Lewis Hamilton is throwing himself into the challenge of helping McLaren build what he hopes will be a race-winning car again for next year.

A considerable degree of focus and resources have been switched to the 2010 model in recent weeks given the realisation the team are not making any headway on improving the current product. There remains a determination to understand just where they took a wrong turn in developing the car, and with world champion Hamilton doing all he can to assist.

"I've a fair bit of input," remarked Hamilton. "With the aerodynamics they have all the input there, but from me, I just raise questions that perhaps they had not thought about."

He added: "I make sure I'm clear on what they are doing, with the controls, the steering wheel, seat position and pedals and what I want as a driver in the car, what they need to give me.

"Sometimes you are given a car and sometimes it's good and you just drive it, and then sometimes you get in a car and you just can't do anything with it because you don't feel comfortable.

"So it's about giving them the information they need. We have to make sure we work on that, that we understand what we need and then build around that."

As for Hamilton's personal focus on next year, that will not come into play until nearer the end of this season.

But unlike last year when he opted to miss the pre-Christmas tests in the wake of his title triumph, that will not happen this year.

"Last year, I don't know whether it would have made such a huge difference, and it was good to have the break as I'd had two years flat out with not really much in between," assessed Hamilton.

"So I took that bit of time off, not particularly anticipating such a bad season and knowing what was coming up. But going into next year, I want to have as much involvement as possible because at the end of the day I'm the one that's going to be in the car."