McLaren’s big test takes place at Suzuka
Team McLaren is trying its best by doing everything they possibly can to ensure that their car performs at its best at the Japanese Grand Prix. McLaren will run a series of tests of their latest upgrades for Suzuka in an attempt to fight back the deficiency
in points between the McLaren drivers and the current drivers’ championship leader Mark Webber.
McLaren lost many points due to the fact that Lewis Hamilton retired after a collision with Mark Webber. Lewis has been underperforming since the past 4 races as he was not able to finish 3 out of those 4 races. The former world champion was leading the
championship before that and lost his lead due to this immense loss of points. Lewis Hamilton lost the second place as Fernando Alonso for Ferrari won two consecutive races.
This season has been relatively unpredictable as compared to the past couple of seasons and it is interesting to see how the top 5 drivers are using their own methods in order to capture the title. The Ferraris and Red Bulls out paced both of the McLaren
drivers almost for the whole weekend, and as a result, Button finished in 4th place at the Marina Bay behind the remaining top 4 drivers. The team claims that they had to postpone a major upgrade due to some “reliability issues”.
McLaren’s managing director Jonathon Neale seems confident that McLaren has overcome this problem and is now in a position to out pace their rivals in the coming race in Singapore this weekend.
"We're throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it. So from that respect we will be pushing very hard. If it means we have to pull the modifications one race forwards and we've only got limited components, I'd rather have a fraction of a second lap time
than wait until we've got a comfortable set of spares and bits and pieces. We are running on a very lean edge of what we've got,” he told the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in.
He revealed in an interview a number of areas the team was updating for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend and said that the Friday practice session would be used to evaluate the new package.
"We are taking a reasonably sized package to Suzuka. We've got a front wing upgrade, we've got a new rear wing and there are some aerodynamic details. I think what we've got is a big test package for Friday and after that we will be in a position to say
what we are actually going to run in anger. Certainly we're taking everything we had in Singapore and some more to Japan,” Neale said.
He was asked about what he believed about McLaren’s chances of winning the titles this year, he replied. "I don't think the destiny of the title is ever in anyone's hands, I don't think any of the teams would say it's in their hands. What we'll do is keep
shifting the odds in our favour by working to make sure the car is bulletproof reliable and the drivers have got to not make mistakes. It could still go any way at the moment - it's a tough one to call."
This year has been a spectacle of unpredictability and one has to agree with Neale that it is still not certain who the title is leaning towards more. The 2010 season has four races left in it’s bag and all the four races are different from one another in
their own way. McLaren hopes to focus on all race differently and the team believes that they have a good package for the races that follow. Lewis Hamilton will have to keep his cool now and think of what is best for the team if he wants to win the title.
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