• McLaren news

Whitmarsh plays down McLaren's problems

Martin Whitmarsh is not panicking about the new McLaren © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News:
• Lewis Hamilton admits to McLaren's problems
  
• News:
• Button expects to trail Red Bull and Ferrari at first race
  

• Drivers:
• Martin Whitmarsh

• Teams:
• McLaren

McLaren's team principal Martin Whitmarsh has warned against reading too much into pre-season testing and his drivers' comments that the MP4-26 is not in the top three.

At this week's Barcelona test Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have both expressed concerns about the car's pace, with Hamilton saying it is not currently in a position to challenge for the title. But Whitmarsh said that pre-season testing has often been misleading and predicted some "surprises" during the year.

"Time without number motorsport pundits have come unstuck when they've attempted to extrapolate testing times to predict race results, and I'm not about to join their number now," he told the official Formula One website. "So let's just wait and see how the season unfolds - I'm sure there'll be plenty of surprises in store, and to be frank it'll be good for the sport if there are."

He added: "Suffice to say that we've had a few reliability issues during testing so far, but we're confident that things are going in the right direction now."

The McLaren was launched later than its rivals in order for the team to test the new Pirelli tyres on its 2010 car - a platform it understood and could gain data from. The MP4-26 has since struggled with the aforementioned reliability problems, shortening its running time further. Nevertheless, Whitmarsh sticks by the decision to launch late.

"The reality is that every decision you make regarding the building and operation of a Formula One car amounts to a calculated and strategic balancing of risk," he said. "In the case of the MP4-26, one of the most significant performance factors facing every team for 2011 was the introduction of the new Pirelli tyres - a variable that, by running at Valencia using last year's car, we felt we could more richly evaluate in isolation, on a platform that we already knew and understood.

"In actual fact, that first test proved extremely beneficial in providing us with rich, raw tyre data that we've been analysing ever since. So, while I admit that the introduction of the MP4-26 has been affected by a few reliability issues, we still stand by our decision to defer its introduction by one test."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.