McLaren say they’re ‘encouraged’ by their latest developments debuted during practice for the German Grand Prix this weekend.
The Woking outfit have struggled for pace recently, collecting just five points from their home race a fortnight ago where their rivals comfortably outpaced them.
The team introduced a major package at Silverstone, but the poor weather meant it couldn’t be evaluated properly. Therefore the team are keen to ensure they collect as much data as possible this weekend to ensure they remain in the title fight.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh says he heads into the race with ‘confidence’, but admits the weather made it difficult to “establish an effective baseline” in which to evaluate the package.
McLaren’s new sidepods explained:
The undercut sidepods introduced in Germany allow greater airflow to the diffuser. The channel of air meets the exhaust downwash to accelerate flow through the diffuser to increase rear downforce.
He added: “There have been some encouraging signs – we implemented a number of measures to improve wet-weather performance and I’m pleased to say that we appear to have made progress in that area.
“More pleasingly, our planned series of upgrades delivered without issue and have given us confidence for the remainder of the weekend.”
Jenson Button also declared himself ‘happy’ with Friday’s running.
“I think we should be happy with most of the parts we’ve put on today – most of them worked correctly – so it’s nice to see the improvement. I want to say a big ‘well done’ to the guys at the factory, they’ve done a great job. Hopefully we’ll be able to see the improvement in performance throughout the rest of the weekend.”
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