Adapted from GMM
Pedro de la Rosa insists it is "too early" for anyone to write off McLaren ahead of the 2011 season.
It was actually the British team's own race drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button who had admitted the MP4-26 is not currently a title winner.
That earned the rebuke from boss Martin Whitmarsh on Thursday that the entire F1 world needs to "wait and see how the season unfolds".
Pedro de la Rosa, newly returned to his former post as McLaren's main test and reserve driver, agreed on Spanish media: "It is too early to draw conclusions. It does appear that a couple of teams seem to be stronger than the others, but until Australia you can't really say anything. There are two weeks to go and in this game that's a lot. Let's be cautious. Let's see what we have and how we can develop it.
The new reserve driver also reveals that his McLaren return was "not easy".
"It is not nice to think that the chances of racing again are remote, but the role I have now is the closest thing to that. In reality it is not easy to get to return to a team that you have left, so for me it's doubly gratifying because it's what I wanted. They reopened the door to me which doesn't always happen in formula one," said Pedro de la Rosa.
"I have to say I saw it pointless to be with another team. After all the teams I've been with, and with my last experience with Pirelli and Toyota, which was very good and I learned a lot, plus my experience with Sauber, I had no desire to go anywhere else," he added.
Pedro de la Rosa insists it is "too early" for anyone to write off McLaren ahead of the 2011 season.
It was actually the British team's own race drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button who had admitted the MP4-26 is not currently a title winner.
That earned the rebuke from boss Martin Whitmarsh on Thursday that the entire F1 world needs to "wait and see how the season unfolds".
Pedro de la Rosa, newly returned to his former post as McLaren's main test and reserve driver, agreed on Spanish media: "It is too early to draw conclusions. It does appear that a couple of teams seem to be stronger than the others, but until Australia you can't really say anything. There are two weeks to go and in this game that's a lot. Let's be cautious. Let's see what we have and how we can develop it.
The new reserve driver also reveals that his McLaren return was "not easy".
"It is not nice to think that the chances of racing again are remote, but the role I have now is the closest thing to that. In reality it is not easy to get to return to a team that you have left, so for me it's doubly gratifying because it's what I wanted. They reopened the door to me which doesn't always happen in formula one," said Pedro de la Rosa.
"I have to say I saw it pointless to be with another team. After all the teams I've been with, and with my last experience with Pirelli and Toyota, which was very good and I learned a lot, plus my experience with Sauber, I had no desire to go anywhere else," he added.