From GMM
After falling at the first of qualifying's three hurdles in Turkey, reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton then dropped his guard with the world's media.
Until recently the McLaren driver, embroiled in the 'lie-gate' saga, was operating under a press gag, but on Saturday the floodgates truly opened as - just two weeks from perhaps his last home grand prix at Silverstone - he contemplated starting the Istanbul race from a lowly 16th.
TV pundit Eddie Jordan had told the BBC that the MP4-24 was "possibly the worst car McLaren has ever designed", and Hamilton did not try hard to disagree.
In fact, he suggested it is perhaps the worst in the current field, telling reporters that through Turkey's long turn eight "we are 10 to 15 kph slower than the Force Indias".
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh is promising to work the Woking factory hard so that an upgrade package scheduled for the German GP is ready for Silverstone.
But Hamilton said: "I don't think we should rush anything. It's not like it will make a huge difference, not like we can win back 60 points."
The 24-year-old then suggested the British team are making a mistake persevering with the Mercedes-powered machine at all.
"We've lost our way with this car. We probably should have scrapped it a long time ago. We need to understand what has gone wrong so we can bounce back next year," said Hamilton.
Retired David Coulthard, who raced for McLaren between 1996 and 2004, wrote in his column for the BBC that while Hamilton "just didn't get it right" on Saturday, and also two weeks ago in Monaco, his subsequent attitude is not incorrect.
"Hamilton can choose to hide his head in the sand and keep on churning out the company line about the next development and the next upgrade," said the Scot, who still travels to all the grands prix as a TV pundit.
"But instead I think he is being fairly honest about the situation and he has already started talking about 2010."
Coulthard also agrees with Hamilton that hoping the MP4-24, and the 2009 world championship, can be rescued, would be a mislaid belief. "I've just never seen anyone upgrade an existing car and turn it into a race winner from the position McLaren are in," said Coulthard.
In the meantime, Fernando Alonso on Sunday pushed Renault to make urgent changes to the R29 formula one car. He insisted the technical improvements have not been enough since the beginning of the '09 campaign.
"This is the same car that we had in Bahrain, and so without improving it significantly, it is normal that in every race we are worse," he is quoted as telling Spain's Diario AS. "Any changes at all are welcome," he added.
After falling at the first of qualifying's three hurdles in Turkey, reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton then dropped his guard with the world's media.
Until recently the McLaren driver, embroiled in the 'lie-gate' saga, was operating under a press gag, but on Saturday the floodgates truly opened as - just two weeks from perhaps his last home grand prix at Silverstone - he contemplated starting the Istanbul race from a lowly 16th.
TV pundit Eddie Jordan had told the BBC that the MP4-24 was "possibly the worst car McLaren has ever designed", and Hamilton did not try hard to disagree.
In fact, he suggested it is perhaps the worst in the current field, telling reporters that through Turkey's long turn eight "we are 10 to 15 kph slower than the Force Indias".
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh is promising to work the Woking factory hard so that an upgrade package scheduled for the German GP is ready for Silverstone.
But Hamilton said: "I don't think we should rush anything. It's not like it will make a huge difference, not like we can win back 60 points."
The 24-year-old then suggested the British team are making a mistake persevering with the Mercedes-powered machine at all.
"We've lost our way with this car. We probably should have scrapped it a long time ago. We need to understand what has gone wrong so we can bounce back next year," said Hamilton.
Retired David Coulthard, who raced for McLaren between 1996 and 2004, wrote in his column for the BBC that while Hamilton "just didn't get it right" on Saturday, and also two weeks ago in Monaco, his subsequent attitude is not incorrect.
"Hamilton can choose to hide his head in the sand and keep on churning out the company line about the next development and the next upgrade," said the Scot, who still travels to all the grands prix as a TV pundit.
"But instead I think he is being fairly honest about the situation and he has already started talking about 2010."
Coulthard also agrees with Hamilton that hoping the MP4-24, and the 2009 world championship, can be rescued, would be a mislaid belief. "I've just never seen anyone upgrade an existing car and turn it into a race winner from the position McLaren are in," said Coulthard.
In the meantime, Fernando Alonso on Sunday pushed Renault to make urgent changes to the R29 formula one car. He insisted the technical improvements have not been enough since the beginning of the '09 campaign.
"This is the same car that we had in Bahrain, and so without improving it significantly, it is normal that in every race we are worse," he is quoted as telling Spain's Diario AS. "Any changes at all are welcome," he added.