Formula 1 News: McLaren confident ahead of Japanese Grand Prix
Formula One’s 2010 season is heading into its finale with 4 races in the season left and all top 5 drivers just separated by 25 points.
Jonathan Neale, the managing director at McLaren, has said that the team is doing all it can to give its British duo the best chance of winning the world championship.
With 15 races in the season gone, the two McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are in 3rd and 5th spots in the table respectively. And Neale believes that the title
race is still on and his team has a great chance of winning the world championship.
"We're throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it," he said.
"Ferrari and Red Bull will be pushing very hard and we're doing the same. We expect to be competing and winning some of these races."
While talking at a news conference before the Japanese Grand Prix, Neale said that the team engineers are working overtime, and new dynamics and strategies are being put into place to make sure that Hamilton and Button have
every possible chance of clinching the title. He said that the next circuit in Suzuka has been good for McLaren and there is a high chance that his team can turn things around in Japan.
Neale said that there are some modifications in the cars that are currently being worked on, and if the drivers can make them work on the tracks and gain the slightest of advantages it would go a long way towards turning
the title race
"If we can pull a modification forward, even if we just had limited components I'd rather have the ability for them to have a fraction of a second faster lap time rather than play until we have a set of spare components,"
he said.
Neale added that there were some modifications made to the cars at Singapore that actually gave the team some heart. Although things did not pan out the way they wanted but still there is enough reason to be optimistic about
the changes. He added that in the next race the team would be introducing few more advancements and if they actually work to their advantage it would be a big step forward.
Neale Said: “I hope all the upgrades make a big difference, we're taking a reasonable size package to Japan, we've got a front wing upgrade and a new rear wing, and there are some aerodynamic details.”
"I think what we've got is a big test package for Friday, then we'll have a better position what we can run in anger - we're taking everything from Singapore and more to Japan."
Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, has not had the greatest time in the last few races. The youngest ever world champion was on track to get his 2nd title just at the midseason break. However,
a couple of bad results in Hungary and Belgium followed by 2 unwanted incidents have left him trailing Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso and he is now in 3rd place.
In the last race in Singapore, Hamilton looked well on course to get at least 3rd place, but when Mark Webber took an early pit and came back with hard tyres, he overtook Hamilton and few laps later
in an effort to get back his spot Hamilton tried to move ahead and slammed into Webber’s car. The incident ended Hamilton’s race while Webber went on to finish the race in 3rd place and kept his position at top of the table. While in
the race before that in Italy it was Felipe Massa from Ferrari who ran into Hamilton’s car and ended his race prematurely. It would be interesting to see what new upgrades and modifications McLaren bring to the track, as another bad race weekend would all
but dash the title hopes of both McLaren drivers.
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