McLaren are pinning their hopes of catching rivals Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus, on their extensive German Grand Prix upgrade.
The outfit dropped to fourth in the Constructors’ after scoring just five points at their home race. They entered the weekend in second, but couldn’t match their rivals pace despite an upgraded MP4-27.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh laid the blame on Friday’s rain, which meant they couldn’t evaluate the latest upgrades.
“I think it’s been one of those weekends,” Whitmarsh is quoted as saying by Autosport. “We had lots of stuff on the car, and we couldn’t run it properly on Friday.”
However the team is hoping an ever larger upgrade, one which will be more visible and reportedly consists of a totally new rear and adjustments to its innovative brake ducts – which can be adjusted to increase or decrease tyre temperatures.
“We’ve got a decent, bigger, more visible upgrade package for Germany and we’ve got to deliver that and make that stick. It’s the same old game, we have got to develop the car, and we have got to make sure we use the tyres better,” he added.
“We weren’t quick enough [at Silverstone], period. We didn’t get as much data this weekend as we wanted.
“We have got to get that data; we got to make sure we come with the planned decent update for Germany. We’ve got to work hard to update the car, we have got to understand the tyres and we have got to minimise mistakes.”
