• McLaren news

McLaren bringing upgrades in response to car issues

McLaren has been working hard to improve the MP4-28 © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Teams:
• McLaren

McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale says the team has worked on some upgrades specifically designed to rectify problems with the MP4-28.

Having started the season poorly on the bumpy Albert Park circuit, McLaren showed improved performance on the smooth Sepang track but was still unable to challenge the front-runners. Neale admitted that certain issues had been highlighted over the weekend at Malaysia and as a result the team had developed new parts which it would have at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

"We managed to improve the car between Australia and Malaysia - we were closer on the pace there - and taking the learning from that weekend we're taking a number of upgrades to China," Neale told a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "Some are just part of our routine upgrade package and some are in response to what we're trying to do at the moment. So I think we've got a lot of work to do on Friday as we learn more about the car and learn what if any of the upgrades that we've taken, works. So it will be a very busy day for Sergio [Perez] and Jenson [Button]."

With clear progress having been made between the first two races, Neale said the team will be looking to confirm it now knows how to get the most out of the MP4-28.

"I believe that we do know where the problems on the car are, but in order to be absolutely sure about that we need to have run the package that we're going to run in China. So the work on Friday is a very key element to it. As always with cars there is no one thing or no one magic bullet, there are a number of things that will restore the performance of the car. We believe that we've got underlying a very good package, but it's clearly not the performance that we predicted."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.