Formula One - McLaren hopes to do better in Singapore than Monza
The Formula One caravan is ready to head for the next race of the season scheduled to take place this weekend in Singapore marking the fifteen round of the season.
As all the teams head for this race, the Formula One official website talked to the McLaren drivers and its team Principal asking about their fear as well as expectations from the upcoming race.
The team driver, Jenson Button pronounced much hope and expectation from the upcoming race. Last year he started the Singapore Grand Prix from 11th place on the grid, while he wrapped it at 5th place.
Now as he moves ahead for the race he said, “The Singapore Grand Prix will be a very interesting weekend because I think it’ll give us a clearer idea of the destiny of the world championship.”
The Singapore track is a low-speed, high-downforce track much similar to the Hungary track, where McLaren were not exceptionally competitive earlier this year. Now as they move on for this track, though they spell a little fear yet they are optimistic as
some up-gradations have been carried in their car to suit the track better.
Button expressed his expectations from the upcoming weekend saying, “But, equally, a lot has changed since that race in Budapest - not least, some quite hefty revisions to the rulebook regarding bodywork flexibility and, additionally, a lot of work by the engineers
at the MTC to ensure our car is now better suited to slower circuits.”
While talking about the race and the atmosphere of the venue, he was happy to exclaim that Singapore has established itself as one of the most exciting and anticipated venues of Formula One calendar in little time.
The other team driver, Lewis Hamilton is looking forward for a great weekend, as he has brilliant memories of the track from last year for he won the 2009 race, starting it from the pole position.
As the cars assemble there this year, he expressed his views saying, “Winning in Singapore last year was one of the most satisfying victories of my Formula One career. The whole team pushed for that result right from the start of the weekend, we overcame
a number of problems, and we never gave up until it was in the bag.”
He further went on telling that as he heads for the place now, he is feeling brilliantly positive. Hamilton has had a poor race weekend earlier this month in Monza, for he had his race ended right in the first minute after making a poor overtaking move at
the first lap, which ended his day with a damaged steering.
However, as he heads for the next race in another six days’ time, he has proclaimed that he has learned some good lessons from last week’s experience, and now he is fully motivated for the upcoming race.
While giving his opinion of the car as well as the track he told, “It’s difficult to say accurately how competitive we’ll be in Singapore. If Monza most closely resembled a track like Canada, then Singapore is far closer to places like Monaco and Hungary, where
we’ve struggled relative to the competition.”
However, the team engineers are very positive as they have made some good changes in the package and hope that they would be more competitive here than they had been in Hungary.
Currently, Hamilton stands at second place in the Drivers’ Championship, having bagged a total of one hundred and eighty two points, as he returned pointless from the last race and had to hand over his top position to Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
On the other hand, Button stands at fourth place, one place behind Fernando Alonso of Ferrari with one hundred and sixty five points under his belt so far.
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