McLaren could have achieved more in 2012 – Formula 1
McLaren had a reliable pre-season testing programme this year and has been considered as one of the most competitive title contenders with their talented drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Button amazed everyone with his tremendous victory in the season opener held at Albert Park in Melbourne and secured second podium finish in the third race. However, in the next few races, he failed to attain any good results for his team as he struggled
with some technical and tyre management issues.
On the other hand, Hamilton has scored points with an appreciable consistency in the season so far and has been deemed as one of the most competent drivers in this year’s championship.
Even though, he has remained very much in the title fight for quite a long time in this season. Conversely, due to some reliability issues in few races, he failed to score any points and lost his hopes of winning the championship title.
There have been many speculations that the problems which the Woking based team is facing right now are due to their engine provider, Mercedes. Contrarily, the team principal, Martin Whitmarsh has completely discharged all the rumours and has said that they
have full faith in their engine manufacturer.
Furthermore, he insisted that the ongoing issues have nothing to do with the overall quality control system of their team.
“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.”
In addition, he said that he feels really disappointed over the issues which the 2008 world champion faced in few grands prix. He also expressed that the 27-year-old really deserved to win the Abu Dhabi GP as he performed extremely well throughout the weekend,
but unluckily he was retired in the race due to his fuel pressure failure.
Nonetheless, he said that they are eagerly looking forward to resolve the issues so as to come up stronger in the future.
“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,” he said.
“We've had a quick car but you can always make it quicker,” he added.
It will be important to mention that Hamilton has signed a new deal with Mercedes and is going to leave his team at the end of this year. Additionally, he will drive as Nico Rosberg’s teammate and will replace the seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher
in the coming year.
Whitmarsh believes that the British driver may regret his move to the Brackley based team in the next season. However, he said that they still wish their driver all the best for the future.
In contrast, Hamilton said that he is keenly waiting for the new challenge and will try his best to take the Silver Arrows to new heights in the coming year. Meanwhile, the team principal of Mercedes, Ross Brawn has said that they are focussing to develop
their next year’s car and are hoping to achieve better results.
Though, McLaren could have achieved more in this year’s championship as they had the potential, but it will be interesting to see how they come up in the next season.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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