McLaren hope to improve the pace of their MP4-28 in Malaysia by running some ‘experimental upgrades’ alongside planned developments.
The team were taken by surprise in Australia as it emerged that they were well down on the lead pace, taking just two points thanks to Jenson Button’s 9th place finish.
Sporting director Sam Michael says they’ll run a number of upgrades, some of which have been flown to Malaysia from their Woking factory in response to their poor form.
“We have some modifications to the car,” he is quoted as saying during a Vodafone McLaren phone-in.
“We have two lines of new parts, one is normal development that would have come anyway, and then we have some experimental stuff to work through on tyre degradation.”
Michael avoided making predicitions on how well they would do in Malaysia with the modifications, despite admitting they had a better understanding of the car.
“We have managed to do some work in the last few days. Whether that will resolve the problems in terms of our competitiveness I really can’t tell you to be honest because I don’t know yet.
“I think even if went to Melbourne again we could do a better job because we have more data. We hope in Malaysia to understand the car better.”
