McLaren confident ahead of Singapore GP
The formula one season is heading into its climax and with 5 races to go and all 5 title contenders are still in the hunt for the world championship.
The only team to have one former and one current world champion, and also have 2 British drivers is McLaren. The British duo have voiced their confidence ahead of the next race in Singapore and said that they are looking forward
to putting up a good show in Asia and stamp their authority on the world championship.
A major part of the 2010 F1 season has been spent in the modifications made to the cars by each team. McLaren did come up with their own in last race, and though the F-duct did well in the practice sessions it did not produce the
same results in qualifying and on race day. The drivers believe that the team engineers have worked hard on the modifications and the changes will work well in the next race.
The 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton believes that the tests conducted on the cars have been satisfactory and is hopeful of a great showing next weekend.
Hamilton said: "We head into the weekend with renewed confidence following some positive tests and some developments in the wind tunnel."
Hungary had been a disappointing race for the duo; it was the final race before the summer break in the season. The team since then has been working hard on modifications and Button is expecting a much improved car.
Button added that "a lot had changed" since McLaren's poor race in Hungary.
There are some similarities between the Hungary and Singapore circuit. Both require high down-force as they are low-speed circuits. In Hungary McLaren cars were almost 2 seconds off the pace from Red Bull and 0.5 seconds behind
Ferrari.
The current world champion Jenson Button said that the next race would be a great indicator of where the title is heading. The former Brawn GP driver said that the new points system means that if one team has a bad day and a rival
team takes a lead, at this stage it would be difficult for others to make a comeback.
There had been some controversy regarding the flexible bodywork of the team, and the engineers worked hard to make some changes. The flexible bodywork is not expected to affect Ferrari and Red Bull to the same degree.
Apart from that McLaren team is also excited about introducing new aerodynamic developments made to their cars for the next race. The team believes that the changes will help them have an edge over their rivals.
Martin Whitmarsh, the team principal at McLaren is optimistic about his team’s chances in Singapore, and believes that the upgrades would help his team a great degree. He said he was "feeling positive that we'll once again be in
a position to race at the front".
The youngest ever F1 champion Lewis Hamilton unfortunately crashed out at the Italian Grand Prix following a collision with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. He lost the top spot and now is trailing Red Bull’s Mark Webber by 5 points in
2nd position.
The 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso is currently in 3rd position and is followed closely by Jenson Button from McLaren and Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull. There are 24 points separating the top 5 drivers, which
makes the next race even more crucial.
Tags: