McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh says the Turkish Grand Prix was their worst race so far this season, following a disappointing result which, for the first time, saw a car other than a Red Bull finish ahead of their best placed car.
That car was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, and it seemed McLaren didn’t have an answer to the sudden influx of pace which the Spaniard experienced in Instanbul, particularly on race day.
“It’s the worst one this season,” Whitmarsh conceded. “But I think I’ve had worse in my career, and I’m sure we’re going to have a lot better as the season goes on.”
He is confident that the Woking outfit will continue to push forward, following on from an impressive pre-season recovery which saw them gain upwards of a second.
“I think we can turn it around and we will turn it around as quickly as we can. We will bring an upgrade to Spain and keep pushing, [it’s] as simple as that.”
He admitted that McLaren need to out-develop both Red Bull and now Ferrari if they are to remain in the title hunt.
“They [Red Bull and Ferrari] are doing a good job, they’re very strong, and we’ve got to make sure that – there’s no secret here – we’ve got to improve our car at a faster rate.
“Fernando did a good job, congratulations to him. We’ll make sure we try and jump ahead at the next race.”
Hamilton’s slow pit-stop was something Whitmarsh highlighted as an issue which needed to be improved upon, despite McLaren averaging some of the best times when it comes to pitting.
“We’ve had the mean average best pit stops of everyone, and then to have a couple of those is disappointing.
“The fact is you’re trying to spin a nut on very quickly, it cross threaded, he hauled off, he went to get the second gun, he felt that was cross threaded so he tried to put it on manually. It will always happen, you will always have.”
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