Martin Whitmarsh believes McLaren still remains in contention for the 2012 titles – Formula 1 news
Martin Whitmarsh has said that McLaren have the developments and the momentum to recover and get back to fighting for the championship titles in the current season.
Whitmarsh believes that the season titles fight will go down the wire, despite Lewis Hamilton retiring from the recently concluded German Grand Prix due to a puncture early in the race the team principal feels that the season is still open enough for them
to bid for the top spot.
Jenson Button managed to finish second in the race after Sebastian Vettel was given a time penalty for the race over his illegal over-taking on Button.
Hamilton has 92 points and Button has 68 which makes them 62 and 86 points behind the leader Fernando Alonso.
“We're at the halfway point and we've got a lot of racing ahead of us,” he said. “They can both do it. This season is going to go right until the very end and I believe we are going to be sat on the edge of our seats right until the final laps of the Brazilian
Grand Prix. I hope that I'm in deep agony in those last few laps as that means we're in contention to win.”
Alonso has taken two wins out of the last three races yet Whitmarsh feels that McLaren still has the potential to take up the challenge.
He added that the car is good enough at the moment and there is still half a season left to go. The onus will be on the team to work hard and make the best of all the opportunities available.
“We've got a reasonable amount of momentum in the system at the moment so we will be making the car quicker, but our competitors will be trying to respond as well and I think that's what makes Formula One as exciting as it is,” he added.
It will be interesting to see how the team manages to get both its drivers to fire on all cylinders to get the desired results in the races. McLaren was considered as the favourites of the season in the earlier stages, but since Red Bull and Ferrari have
been tagged as the teams to beat in the season.
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