McLaren aims to improve its qualifying pace in order to bridge the gap to Red Bull which, according to managing director Jonathan Neale, is critical to beating the Austrian outfit.
The Woking outfit’s MP4-26 has often been a match for the RB7 during the races but, as is the case for the entire grid, they’ve been unable to match the cars unique one-lap performance.
However, that gap has closed in recent races with Lewis Hamilton qualifying within a tenth of pole position in Germany and two tenths in Hungary, whilst teammate Jenson Button hasn’t been much further behind.
Neale is adamant that further improvements are needed in this area and new upgrades for the Belgian GP this weekend and the next race in Monza will help them to further challenge Red Bull’s pole position domination.
“In terms of closing the gap to Red Bull, we have had a competitive race car for some time now,” Neale said during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. “The qualifying pace is where we have been falling short.
“We haven’t got the cars in the right part of the grid, but we are developing at a better rate and there are a series of upgrades planned for these next two races.”
Neale singled out a new DRS rear-wing which he believes will be the key to unlocking extra potential which hasn’t yet been utilised.
“Now that we have got ourselves into a situation where we believe we are competitive, we have been able to devote time to the DRS system and my expectations are that our DRS system will be competitive at the next few races.
“However, what we try to do is add performance to the car in a variety of ways – there is no one way of doing it and there is certainly no magic bullet.
“Our workforce, our drivers, our sponsors and our fans expect us to fight through to the last race. That’s what McLaren is here to do – to run deep into the season and to win races.”
