Formula One: McLaren boss not giving up the fight
Formula one 2010 season is by far the most exciting one in recent history, now it all comes down to the final 3 races. It’s Red Bull’s Mark Webber who is leading the pack, while Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who had led the table in mid season has fallen behind
badly in last few races. The 2008 champion has fallen from the top position to 4th in matter of 4 races, while the other driver from McLaren the defending Champion Jenson Button is on 5th spot.
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh though is still hopeful of his boys, and has said that his team can still win the title.
In last 6 races, both of the British drivers have managed only one place on the podium each. Hamilton is now 28 points adrift of the top while Button is 31 points behind.
The next race takes place at the brand new Korean circuit in Yeongam, it will be followed by the Brazilian Grand Prix and finally the season would end at Abu Dhabi. However, realistically speaking the chances of either Hamilton or Button winning the title
are quite slender.
Whitmarsh is still adamant though that it can change dramatically.
"With three races remaining and 75 points on the table for the drivers, it would be unwise to write off Jenson, Lewis or McLaren," said Whitmarsh.
"Both drivers have won world championships before. They understand the difficulties of such a unique situation.”
The McLaren team boss believes that both his drivers have always been good under pressure, and it is always a tense situation that brings out the best in his team. He said that last 3 races would hold great significance on who can take the pressure and he
reiterated that, the race is not over yet.
Whitmarsh said that his tam engineers have been working overtime for advancements in the car that would be revealed in the next race. He added that number or new developments in the cars did not go according to plan, but that does not mean that it discouraged
the team from trying new things. Whitmarsh said that McLaren has always been a team that has introduced new innovations in their cars, and the rest have followed later.
After the last race, there were speculations that Hamilton may be handed another 5 place penalty at the Korean Grand Prix. Whitmarsh dismissed the rumours saying that there is no truth to that, and Hamilton would start on race day according to his performance
in qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton qualified in 3rd place in Japan Grand Prix, but was pushed back 5 places. That was due to the illegal change of gearbox in qualifying. As a result, Hamilton ended up starting the race on 8th place and lost further ground
in the title race.
McLaren is the only team on the circuit to have two world champions in the team, and that is not the only distinction they have. McLaren also is the only team to have 2 British drivers plus the fact that the team is Britain based, so it makes it an all British
affair. None of the other teams can say that. When the season started, the duo of Hamilton and Button was being dubbed as the dream team. That is not the way things have worked out for them; however, one can still expect things to change in last 3 races. After
all stranger things have happened and one can never be sure of what can happen on the tracks when the cars are going at almost 300 km/hr.
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