Marin Whitmarsh says McLaren will have a surprise element in Melbourne – Formula 1 news
McLaren Team boss Martin Whitmarsh expects his team to strike in the Melbourne Grand Prix as he is hopeful of their performance.
Whitmarsh admits that McLaren’s performance in the pre-season testing was not so impressive, but he also said that all the problems were taken care of before the season gets underway and the team will strike with a surprise element in Melbourne.
McLaren have been completely down and out of the competition in the pre-season tests. They faced many technical and mechanical problems which forced many people to say that McLaren will be underdogs in the 2011 season.
McLaren’s duo, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, was also not very happy with the new car’s performance and said that the MP4-26 will not be the car bringing the titles for the team. Button said that the car is not the kind of package a team would like to
go with into the season, if the goal is to win.
Whitmarsh, however, believes that the McLaren team is not completely out if the competition.
“Do I think we head into the weekend as favourites? No, but do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise people and be competitive? Very much so,” he said.
He further explained that a lot was expected from the new car and hence many new upgrades were planned. He also added that the McLaren team sets themselves a bigger target for the car development and in case of MP4-26, the limits of development were crossed
which caused the whole package to deviate from the hopes.
Summarising the testing session, Whitmarsh said, “It's called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive. In actual fact, we've gathered a huge amount of useful data about the car, its handling characteristics
and its management of the tyres.”
McLaren have a habit of sandbagging their package before the start of the season. In 2009, the MP4-24 was the slowest car in the first few grands prix and eventually went on to win the drivers title. Whitmarsh stood tall on the previous performance of McLaren
and said that the McLaren team is a challenger and will never give up championship hopes before the start of the season.
Jenson Button has a chance of making a hat-trick in Melbourne. He has won the previous two races there and is pretty much looking for a third.
He said, “On paper that might not look likely, but seriously, who knows? I most definitely wouldn't rule it out.”
Nevertheless, the 2011 season starts in less than a week and McLaren will be really tested against some of the pre-season test giants like Ferrari and Red Bull.
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