McLaren has taken the opportunity between the Canadian and British Grands Prix to test its latest upgrade package during an allowed straight-line test.
The Woking team, which failed to score points with either car a fortnight ago – for the first time in 64-consecutive races – is hoping to make a decent step forward at Silverstone.
The team’s managing director, Jonathan Neale, revealed that they tested with new parts at the Idiada circuit in Spain to decide which to keep on the car.
“The only issue with our car is we lack downforce and that is what we are trying to create at the moment,” he said during a Vodafone phone-in.
“We’ve got a range of upgrades for the weekend but we’re not there just testing parts, but testing some fundamental understanding issues as well.
“We’ll wait and see on Friday afternoon at Silverstone as to what remains on the car for Saturday to know how successful it has been, but we won’t know until this evening [on Tuesday] finally what package we’ll take.”
Speaking about their aims for Silverstone, he described the idea of securing their first podium in 2013 as “quite challenging.”
“We want to get both cars into Q3 and then race hard for good points,” he added.
“It would be great if the guys could get a podium out of it but I think on recent performance that could be quite challenging.”
