McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is confident that his outfit will be on form for the British Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
The Woking team had a poor race in Valencia in which they could only manage fourth and sixth, unable to challenge Red Bull nor Fernando Alonso.
On the back of comments from both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button calling for more upgrades and better downforce, Whitmarsh says the outfit will do their best but admitted the problem wasn’t purely because of downforce.
“There has never been a car that has had enough power and enough downforce,” he is quoted as saying after the race.
“You are working all the time to do that. We were not exploiting the tyres correctly, we were struggling with traction – and that was not to do with downforce, that was tyre temperature.”
The cars will see further improvements for the race, but with the ban on off-throttle exhaust blown diffusers, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not McLaren can once again challenge for the race win.
“I am an optimist,” added Whitmarsh. “We plan to go to Silverstone with some new things; we will have new parts and possibly a new rear wing – various bits and pieces.
“Silverstone is very different to here. Anyone who stands here and say I am sure we will be back with the quickest race car would be rather foolish, but we will see how we get on.
“We’ve had a difficult afternoon, but we had three races with the quickest race car and we just did not have the quickest one here. This is not the intention and we will be working hard to develop the car to be quicker at Silverstone.”
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