McLaren confident ahead of the Italian Grand Prix
Formula one team, McLaren has said that they are confident that Lewis Hamilton will be able to defend his top spot in the driver championship at the next race in Italy, and will be a strong contender to win the race at Monza.
The next circuit in the F1 calendar is in Italy, and the track is one with high speed and number of long straights. The map of the track is expected to favour McLaren rather than the other 2 rival teams, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Tim Goss, the chief Engineer at McLaren said that Monza will be a good circuit for McLaren, and he has no doubts that Hamilton and Jenson Button will be head and shoulders above the rest.
Goss said that the shape of McLaren cars will be a great advantage for them. He added that their 2 cars are more aerodynamic as compared to Red Bull or Ferrari, and will be able to make use of the long straights at the circuit more efficiently.
Lewis Hamilton has regained the top spot in the driver standings at the Belgian Grand Prix from Mark Webber of Red Bull. Hamilton now leads the table ahead of the Australian by 3 points.
Jenson Button, the 2nd McLaren driver and the current world champion is 35 points adrift and was in 2nd place at Belgium before being knocked off the race by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in an accident.
Before the Belgium Grand Prix, the F1 2010 season was on a break, and McLaren had said that despite not having the best of results in last 3 races they are confident that Belgium and Italy would see strong performances from them. At Belgium the team displayed that they have finally been able to get the upgrades right and especially their own version of the exhaust–blown diffuser has been a key element in the team’s progress.
Goss said that earlier in the season, the team had not got the diffuser right, and hence was playing catch up with Ferrari and Red Bull. But the break helped them work on the diffuser extensively and results speak for themself.
McLaren’s chief engineer said that the team has made some major developments in Spa, and hopes that the momentum will be carried forward by Hamilton and Button to the next race.
He said that Monza circuit is expected to a very tight one, and Red Bull would not have the advantage that they enjoyed in Hungary. Goss said that number of long straights in Italy will allow his 2 drivers to deploy the F-duct aerodynamic to good effect and should be able to get the maximum out of it.
The F-duct, that is an innovation of McLaren has since been copied by other teams, but hardly any of them has managed to get it right. Ferrari and Red Bull are still undecided if they will use it in Italy or not.
Goss said that his team will be using the F-duct in practice, and will make the decision after that on whether to use it in qualifying or not. He added that the team can also opt to go with the conventional rear-wing solution.
Meanwhile Ferrari will also be looking to improve on their performance from the last race considering this is their home circuit. Fernando Alonso said that the race for the championship is still on and the new points system means that positions on the table can change pretty quickly.
Alonso said that his team will employ double diffuser at the Italian Grand Prix and he expects it to work better than the F-duct of McLaren.
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