Lewis Hamilton fears his world title dreams are "hanging by a thin thread" following a disastrous weekend for his McLaren team in Hungary.

McLaren went into the race leading the constructors' championship and with Hamilton and his team-mate, Jenson Button, first and second in the drivers' standings. But after their worst result of the year, with Hamilton retiring with a gearbox failure and Button finishing a lowly eighth after being lapped, McLaren are now looking up at Red Bull Racing.

The team are now on a summer break, after the factory in Woking closed down at midnight last night for two weeks. It will be a fortnight during which McLaren's top brass will be wondering how they can claw back the deficit.

With Hamilton now four points behind yesterday's winner, Mark Webber, with seven races remaining, the 25-year-old is now doubting whether he can add to his 2008 title. "These seven races are going to be hard. We're hanging on by a thin thread at the moment," Hamilton told the Press Association.

"At this stage of the season, to be so far off and to have a DNF [did not finish] like we did, whilst we are still in the hunt for the championship, it's obviously serious. It's not a case to look upon lightly, not that we do, and it's not a case of saying 'oh, it's all right, at the next race we'll be OK.' It's a case where we have to pull together everything we have, in terms of resources of the team, the knowledge we all have, and to be the most united we have ever been."

Hamilton has been down a similar road before, just last season when the cars were more than two seconds off the pace at the start of the year only for McLaren to give him a winning one again by Hungary. Although time is running out this season, Hamilton is convinced if one team is capable rediscovering the winning formula, then it is McLaren.

"I do believe we can catch them," said Hamilton. "I have complete faith in my team, and I still feel we can do it, that when we get back [following the holiday], everyone will be attacking, will have ideas. As soon as the shutdown is over, I know people will be working from the second they're back at work because if anyone can do it, we can."

"I'm just going to be on the tail of all the team, all the engineers, making sure they don't miss anything. It's just as much my job to kick them as it is for them to kick me."

After being trounced by Red Bull and Ferrari in the last two races, Hamilton feels the break has come at just the right time. "It means everyone can take a step back, take a breather, and say 'OK, let's assess the situation,"' he said. "Where you're in the midst of the tension, stress and pressure, there are some things you miss. We're all fully aware of the situation, but everyone can go away and have a long, hard think of what we can do to improve."

Jenson Button, the reigning champion, shares Hamilton's concerns regarding the title aspirations, but, like the 25-year-old has seen what McLaren are capable of, even if it has been from an outsider's perspective.

Button continues,"We are not as quick as the Red Bulls, and that is not a negative, it's just that we're not.

"You do have peaks and troughs in Formula One, in a career and when you are fighting at championship level. At the moment we are not in a trough, but we are not as powerful and as strong as the Red Bulls. But I have every confidence the team will pull something out, and I'm going to try everything I can to make sure we have a car that goes quicker."