Hamilton is in pretty bad shape - Lauda

Only a month ago, former World Champion Niki Lauda, hailed McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton as a genius. After attending the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lauda seemed to have changed his praises into criticism. At Sakhir, Hamilton only finished the race in 13th position.

Niki Lauda was quoted saying to the 'Daily Mirror': "At the moment, he absolutely doesn't impress me. I thought he would become better this year, but he has become worse. He's in pretty bad shape. The crash with Alonso, and into the tyre wall on Friday, were absolutely needless. He showed nothing in Bahrain. That's because of the pressure he is putting on himself."

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis disagrees with Niki Lauda as the Briton is convinced his protégé will bounce back after his bad weekend in the desert. Dennis said: "What happens is you rationalise everything for a couple of days, go through a mental dip and then you come back. The only thing you look at as you go into the last weekends is the points standings, and they're all so close at this stage it's almost immaterial. When it's so close, you don't suddenly start panicking, you concentrate on starting the weekend and working though it and doing a really good job."