McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh has given a frank opinion on the Woking squad’s performance this season, admitting they were ‘too ambitious’ with their plans.
Believing they had reached the development potential of the MP4-27, which was arguably the fastest car on the grid, McLaren opted to completely redesign their car for 2013.
That decision backfired and they’ve slumped into the midfield with no signs of major improvements.
Whitmarsh admits the team regret the decision and says they should have focussed on developing the old car, like their rivals.
“Frankly the car is not fast enough,” he told the official Formula 1 website.
“With the benefit of hindsight we were too ambitious last year. We had a competitive car and made decisions to make very big changes in the expectation of aggressively making a big step forward – and that backfired,” he explained.
“In hindsight we should have evolved what was already a competitive car. We didn’t do that and are paying the cost of it – but we are learning a lot from all this pain.”
He believes teams go through phases of uncompetitiveness, but they come out the other side stronger, and that’s what McLaren will do.
“I think teams go through these phases,” he added. “We are a long-term team. We are very fortunate with great shareholders. We have fiscal stability, we’ve got a good budget and we have a great new partner [Honda] in prospect – so there are a lot of things to be positive about.
“So yes, we are having a tough time, but we’ve been there before. We will fight through and do the best job we can.”
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