McLaren have suggested that their surprise 'turnaround' at the Turkish GP was the consequence of previously underperforming rather than a dramatic improvement in performance.
Even in their own preview to the race, McLaren struck a downbeat tone, suggesting that rivals Ferrari would hold the advantage. ""We didn't really shine here in the past, and also this time we are not the current benchmark," conceded Norbert Haug, "The team wants to score as many points as possible, but after three consecutive wins Ferrari obviously arrive here as the favourites."
With no testing between Spain, where Ferrari dominated and took their second successive one-two victory, there was no reason to suspect that McLaren would close the gap to the extent that, but for Heikki Kovalainen suffering a puncture on the opening lap and Bridgestone instructing Lewis Hamilton to use a 'sub-optimal' three-stop strategy, they probably should have won the race. So how did they achieve the apparent turnaround?
Pressed to supply an explanation by Autosport, MD Martin Whitmarsh was vague, intimating that it was just a matter of exploiting the full potential of the MP4-23.
"We've got a number of parts on the car and we're working hard to develop the car," he remarked. "I think it's easy to say coming out of a race that we've under-performed and we did a better job here with the car and Heikki from the very first run on Friday morning felt the car was strong and could really do the job here."
Explaining the reason for Hamilton three-stopping, which cost the McLaren driver vital seconds out on track, Whitmarsh said: "It was a decision we took on Saturday, before the third free practice session. We had concerns about tyre durability, although obviously we didn't advertise the fact. It affected Lewis in particular and we took a number of preventative measures. We increased tyre pressures on Saturday morning, but although that addressed the problem to a degree it didn't so do sufficiently to give us the margin we needed."
The McLaren CEO is now eagerly awaiting Monaco, a grand prix that has in the past been a happy hunting ground for McLaren. "Tthe team has a great history there and we are naturally looking to add to that this year. I think we'll be competitive and it's a circuit both our drivers like," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment