Hamilton welcomes new regulations

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Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton believes new regulations will leave the 2009 title race wide open.

The 23-year-old Briton said he was "looking forward to tackling" the changes to next year's cars, which include major aerodynamic alterations.

Cars will use slick tyres and convert heat from brakes into bursts of power.

"I've had a close look at the new car and the engineers have explained the philosophy behind it. I am watching testing with interest," he said.

The new developments include a switch to slick tyres from the grooved ones of recent years, and the introduction of the kinetic energy recovery system (Kers), which stores energy recovered from the axle during braking and converts it to supply a brief power boost.

Teams are currently in winter testing, working out how best to deploy the new technology.

McLaren's Pat Fry, chief engineer on the Woking-based team's MP4-24 car for 2009, recently said the alterations for the new season would create "the potential for upset and the normal pecking order to be different".

Hamilton will not return to testing until January, once he has taken part in a team training camp in Finland.

He will limber up at the Kuortane Sports Institute, in western Finland, before performing a demonstration run in his McLaren at London's Wembley Stadium as part of the Race of Champions event on 14 December.

Hamilton is hot favourite to lift the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award later that day.

"Finland is when it (the training) all starts again in earnest," said Hamilton, whose Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen will be testing again in Spain and Portugal this month after the camp in his home country.

"Brazil already seems a long time ago and I'm now focusing 100% on 2009," added Hamilton.

"Before Christmas, I plan to take a holiday and return fresh and positive to kick-start our winter test programme with the MP4-24."

Hamilton became the youngest F1 world champion in history in November, beating Ferrari's Felipe Massa to the title by a single point.

F1 is once again set for upheaval between seasons, with boss Bernie Ecclestone recently outlining more proposals to change the sport.

Ecclestone is keen to introduce a new scoring system alongside developments in aerodynamics and technology.

He wants the old points system scrapped in favour of gold, silver and bronze medals for the first three drivers to finish each race.

Ecclestone's plans would reward the driver who wins the most races with the world title - but would have seen Hamilton miss out to Felipe Massa this year.