McLaren admits being laid back in development of their MP4-25
The British team, McLaren finally admits that the year was not free of mistakes for them. The team has finally accepted that they were not able to develop their MP4-25 on time, which has cost them both
the championships.
At one part of the season, the British team stood at the top of both the Drivers’ as well as the Constructors’ title; however, their chances of the Constructors’ Title are already over as it got decided
at the Brazilian Grand Prix last Sunday. On the other hand, the Drivers’ Title also seems very unlikely for the team now, as one of its drivers, Lewis Hamilton stands at 4th place in the drivers’ tally, while Jenson Button is already out of the
contention standing now at fifth place with 199 points.
Although the McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has rejected that the team is out of title contention, yet he has accepted the fact that the team was slow in its development work at the start of the
season, which had affected the performance of the drivers immensely.
Whitmarsh is of the view that the 2008 champion, Hamilton is still a part of the battle, and his difference of just 24 points is very much achievable. However, it is obvious that the fight is tough for him now. It is not only because
of the points’ difference, but also because of the pace of the McLaren car as compared to other rivals that Hamilton might not be able to achieve this target.
As the driver came out of the race in Brazil, he stated that only a ‘miracle’ at the last race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, could help the team now. However, the team is of a different view believing that the driver
can still win and it is not about ‘miracles’.
The Briton explained saying, "Drivers and cars not finishing races are not miracles, they happen quite frequently in motor racing, so we will see. At the moment if Lewis wins and Fernando doesn't finish, and there are not many
points scored by the other boys then he wins. There is a tense Championship fight going on at the moment.”
This season had been an amazing one, as new twists and turns had been witnessed one after the other at tracks all through the season. Even now as only one more round is to take place, all the top four men, Fernando Alonso, Mark
Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton, have an equal chance for the title.
While explaining the situation Whitmarsh said, "It is fantastic for F1 that we are going to the last round and four drivers could potentially come out of it as World Champion. You have to say at the moment that Fernando looks very
strong but we have seen things go wrong in the last minute in Championships ourselves.”
He further continued saying that year after year several surprising things are seen in the sport. Sometimes they go against a team and at times, they favour the same team. However, the sport never goes short of surprises, and he
is waiting for one this year.
While concluding, the team boss said that every year is a new experience and this one had its own lessons to teach them. He accepted the fact that they had not been able to keep up the up-gradation work as compared to other teams,
yet he believes that still the war is not over.
Besides the slow development work, the other major reason behind the team’s decline had been Hamilton’s poor finishes during the last stage of the season. He failed to finish three of the last eight races, the Hungarian, Italian
and Singapore Grands Prix, which dropped him to fourth place from the top of the tally. However, the aggressive young man is still adamant to do his best at this week’s round in Abu Dhabi, in order to lay his hands on the second championship of his career.
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