Whitmarsh: New McLaren will be competitive

McLaren-Mercedes team principal Martin Whitmarsh has revealed that he is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the team’s new car, the MP4-25, that will be launched at Vodafones UK headquarters in Newbury on Friday. McLaren struggled at the start of last year and weren’t really competitive until the second half of the season, when Lewis Hamilton managed to win two races for the Woking-based outfit, something that helped the team steal third spot from Ferrari in the constructors championship. Speaking in the countdown to the first test at Valencia on February 1, Whitmarsh added that he has been very pleased with the work done on the squads latest challenger. “Clearly, the absence of testing in January has eased the car-build schedule to a certain degree, but were still working as hard as ever at the McLaren Technology Centre. During the development of MP4-25, we set ourselves some very high targets and Im enormously pleased with the way our designers and engineers have tackled the approach to the new car,” Whitmarsh stated. “The new regulations have obviously had an effect on the cars appearance, with the much higher-capacity fuel tank looking more striking than before. “But were pleased with a number of solutions weve been able to bring to the car, and I think were cautiously optimistic that, after the experience of last year and, in particular, the momentum we gathered in the second half of the season, well have a competitive car for both Jenson and Lewis. “Is it a championship contender? Its still far too early to say. Will it win races? We certainly hope so. Am I proud of the effort weve currently invested in the car? Most definitely.” Hamilton will be joined by Jenson Button this season and while some believe having two world champions could cause friction a bit like what happened in 2007 when Fernando Alonso was paired with then rookie Hamilton – Whitmarsh remains convinced that the two Brits will work together well. Indeed he is confident that the partnership will be a successful one and that it wont hinder the teams ambitions. “Im relatively relaxed about the driver partnership. Knowing Lewis as I do, and having got to know more of Jenson during the limited time Ive spent with him during his busy visits to MTC, I feel relatively confident that our driver line-up this year will be a very stable and mutually productive one,”…

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Posted by admin 27 January 2010

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