Pedro de la Rosa says it is not over for McLaren as he joins the team as test driver – Formula 1 news
The 40-year-old Spanish driver, Pedro de la Rosa, has said that McLaren are not yet over as some teams are good than others in the testing, but the championship competition remains hazy before the Australian Grand Prix gets underway.
McLaren’s MP4-26 has been the centre of discussion for the last two weeks and it was their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who started the discussion by saying that McLaren lack development. They both also said that looking at the car’s capability,
finishing third behind Red Bull and Ferrari will be an achievement. Former Formula 1 drivers also said that McLaren will be a catch-up car in the 2011 season as it is slower than many and has faced lot more technical problems than any other top team.
Rosa disagrees with the debate and said, “It does appear that a couple of teams seem to be stronger than the others, but until Australia you can't really say anything. There are two weeks to go and in this game that's a lot. Let's be cautious.”
Earlier this week he signed a contract with McLaren as a test driver and said that, “It is not nice to think that the chances of racing again are remote, but the role I have now is the closest thing to that.”
He further added that after being with so many teams like Sauber, Jaguar, and Arrows, return to McLaren feels like home. He was with the McLaren team in the same capacity from 2003-2009 and made his first Grand Prix appearance in McLaren colours when in
2005 he participated in the Bahrain Grand Prix when Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder. He finished fifth and posted the fastest lap. He did plenty of development work in the years when Hamilton and Button took their titles.
In 2010, he was with Sauber where he finished 17th on the table while scoring 14 points. He was dropped halfway through the season in favour of Nick Heidfeld and was called by Pirelli as a test driver.
The testing will continue in Barcelona and McLaren have not yet confirmed whether Rosa will drive the new car or not.
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