Martin Whitmarsh has conceded that his McLaren team might not be entering the first race of the season as favourites, but he is confident the Woking team can surprise.
The 52-year-old admits the team may have pushed their development a little too far, resulting in some reliability issues which have led to the team missing out on vital running during testing.
“Over the winter, we set ourselves some extremely ambitious performance targets for MP4-26,” he said. “[We] are an uncompromising team and, as with every car we build, we tend to push development to the limit.
“In some cases, we’ve pushed over those limits, and the resulting lack of mileage has invariably eaten into our pre-season preparation.”
Despite this, the MP4-26 is expected to feature a raft of upgrades and developments for the opening race at the Albert Park circuit and, Whitmarsh is expecting the team to do well, regardless of their testing results.
“Do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we’ll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so.”
