McLaren say they have solved the issues which saw them under-perform in Valencia just under a fortnight ago, according to managing director Jonathan Neale.
The duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button could only manage fourth and sixth after being outpaced by Red Bull and, for the first time, Ferrari.
Neale put the blame on a poor set-up which had a detrimental affect on their tyre wear during the grand prix – though he believes that issue is now solved.
“I think we underperformed at Valencia, we didn’t really get the car dialled in properly,” he said. “We had single lap performance, as evidenced by the pace we showed on Saturday, but we couldn’t get the tyres to last in the same way that both Ferrari and Red Bull did so we were disappointed by that.
“We understand the reasons why, and we’ve done something about it. It’s not something I can talk about in any detail for obvious reasons, but actually there was learning to be had from Valencia.”
The team are optimistic for this weekends British Grand Prix which they are hoping a raft of upgrades will counteract the off-throttle exhaust-blown diffuser ban.
“We’ve got a range of upgrades for the car, the aerodynamic package will be improved but I guess the technical landscape will be pretty much dominated by what happens to everybody’s car with the changes to the technical regulations on engine loads. Colleagues in other teams have been in the media talking and speculating about that.
“There is no doubt its going to affect all of the top teams; its definitely going to affect us, Red Bull have already said its definitely going to affect them, the key question is who is it going to affect most. I don’t think we are really going to know that until Saturday afternoon, so I’m not going to speculate on that. It’s certainly had quite a big impact on everybody.”
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