McLaren aren’t concerned by their recent reliability gremlins which robbed Lewis Hamilton of what looked to be a comfortable win for the 27-year-old in Abu Dhabi.
The team head to Austin knowing they have a competitive car which managing director Jonathan Neale hopes will be enough for them to win the inaugural race on the new Circuit of the Americas.
“I expect to see the usual suspects up the front,” said Neale during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. “Clearly it’s a very close-fought championship, and with some pretty tantalising battles up and down the grid, whether you’re in the midfield or at the rear and fighting for those very important Grand Prix places. But yes, we hope – and our desire is – to do really well and to win the race.”
When probed on the recent failures and whether they might return this weekend, Neale denied they would take a cautious approach but rather the opposite as they strive for a step in performance to secure second in the constructors’ championship.
“The failure we had in Abu Dhabi was very painful,” he admitted.
“Having said that, we’ve just done 1,500 trouble-free kilometres with the same car at the [young driver] test last week. So yes, we are very mindful of the constructors’ championship, but we are still taking performance upgrades to this Grand Prix.
“We are not taking an overtly cautious approach, but we are going to be very diligent.”
