Martin Whitmarsh says that reliability issues are not common at McLaren – Formula 1 news
McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, insists that reliability issues are not regular at McLaren but just a part of the Formula 1 sport.
The team has been suffering from some bad races this season as their lead driver Lewis Hamilton had to retire in many of them. The most recent DNF happened when Hamilton had to retire from the lead in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend. The driver not
only set a pace to rival Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in the free practice sessions but also secured the pole for the team in the qualifying round.
The reason Hamilton was unsuccessful at completing the race this time was a fuel pump failure. McLaren has been having similar reliability issues throughout the season. There was an anti roll bar failure in the Korean Grand Prix where Hamilton kept fighting
despite the car problem and earned a single point for the team.
Whitmarsh has refused to blame their engine providers Mercedes saying that reliability issues can occur anytime in Formula 1.
“In fairness to Mercedes, they have been very reliable,” Whitmarsh said. "But these things happen in motor racing, they are not related or endemic, it's just one of those things.”
He also appreciated Hamilton for the effort he has been putting in the races despite having to deal with car failures.
He said, “I think Lewis deserved to win this race. He came here, did a great job, was on it from the get go and we were all pretty confident that should have been a relatively easy and straightforward win. Clearly he had the pace, he was looking after his
tyres from the start and that's why it's frustrating.”
On the other hand, Hamilton has clearly expressed his frustration with the ongoing car issues and having a bad season run. He confessed that when you start from the pole, you are most probably set to win the race unless you face major issues which he has
been in half of the races this season. He admitted that if he had a better car like Red Bull and Ferrari, he might have been able to rival them for the Drivers’ title.
With hopes of both Drivers’ and Constructors’ dissolved, McLaren is looking forward to trying to win the last two races.
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