Paddy Lowe says McLaren have solved gearbox issue – Formula 1 news
McLaren technical director, Paddy Lowe has said that they have solved their gearbox issue and are feeling confident for the remainder of the 2012 Formula 1 season.
Lewis Hamilton of the Woking based team performed tremendously well in the qualifying of the Singapore Grand Prix and claimed an incredible pole position. However, he failed to score even a single point in the race as he faced a gearbox problem and was eventually
retired.
Later on, the British squad assessed that Hamilton’s teammate, Jenson Button may also face the same issue in the races ahead. Therefore, they decided to change the gearbox both their drivers for which Button will face a five-place grid penalty in the Japanese
GP which is going to be held at Suzuka this weekend.
Nonetheless, Lowe has said that they have found the problem in their gearbox and have successfully resolved it. Moreover, he said that they are feeling positive about the forthcoming races and are hoping not to face any such issue again.
“It was the same on both cars, just more extreme in Lewis's case and obviously terminal,” Lowe said. “Jenson was, to be honest, lucky to finish and the gearbox was not in a good state at the end, which is why we've had to change it.”
“It's a quality problem that unfortunately affected both of those gearboxes. But we completely understand it now and it won't crop up again. It had affected a certain batch,” he added.
In addition, he clarified that the 2008 world champion faced retirement in the last race was completely unexpected and it had nothing to do with the incident happened during the qualifying.
“It came completely out of the blue in the race. It also had no relationship to the tap against the wall [in qualifying],” he said.
Besides, he said that gearbox issues are very common nowadays. He also said that they are not feeling disappointed over the retirement of the 27-year-old in the previous race or the grid penalty which the 2009 world champion has to face in the approaching
race and are aiming to achieve competitive results in the remaining grands prix.
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