McLaren looking to catch up with Red Bull: Formula One News
McLaren-Mercedes managing director Jonathan Neale says his team are lagging behind Red Bull in terms of speed and reliability and that there is still a lot of work required to match their rivals. The British team had a lot of issues during the winter testing,
but did a great job in providing a strong car to driver Lewis Hamilton, who finished the Australian Grand Prix on the podium.
Neale stated, “We don't think we necessarily had the quickest car out there, and we are working very hard over the next few races to try and make sure that Lewis (Hamilton) and Jenson (Button) can qualify on the front row.”
He further added, “I think there is still a reasonable amount of work to do. There are some areas of the car that we are satisfied with, but clearly at this stage it is all about how we exploit the tyres and we get the down-force on the car.”
McLaren’s managing director claimed that his team’s performance was encouraging for the drivers Hamilton and Jenson Button. They finished second and sixth respectively in the race but Button could have finished the race in a better position, if he had not
been given a drive-through penalty by the race stewards in Melbourne.
However, Neale was aware of the fact that rivals Ferrari and Mercedes won’t sit quietly after a bad start to the season. Both teams had shown a lot of promise during the pre-season testing and their poor performance in Australia didn’t reflect the true picture.
The second race of the season, which will take place at Sepang in Malaysia on Sunday, 10th April, will be much more technical and physically demanding one. The conditions will be entirely different to what the drivers witnessed in the season opener
at Albert Park.
The track temperature and humidity will be a lot more in Malaysia compared to the Australian Grand Prix. This will not allow the drivers to finish the race on a two-stop strategy, like they did in the first race. The Pirelli tyres will also wear out at a
faster rate in Sepang, as they did in Barcelona during the pre-season tests, because of the hot weather.
The Malaysian circuit has longer straights and is a complete racing track unlike Australia, which was a semi-street circuit. This means that the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and the Drag Reduction System (DRS) will play a crucial part in determining
the outcome of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Reigning champions Red Bull weren’t able to use their KERS during the first race, as they had some technical issues. However, the team was well aware of the fact that their chances wouldn’t improve without the system, which brings an additional 80 horsepower.
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