McLaren fears its 2013 problems could run into 2014 if it doesn’t rectify its correlation issues that have been causing its poor on track performance in the opening rounds of this Formula 1 season.
The team will bring a “significant volume” of new parts to its MP4-28 car to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, which it hopes will kick start its difficult start to the year.
However, the team’s managing director, Jonathan Neale, revealed during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in, that understanding how the team went off track in its design process is more important than making the 2013 car work immediately.
"We are essentially trying to sort out a correlation issue," he said during the teleconference. "It's really important that we sort out the issues with the car and the correlation.
"All of the time you've got that lingering doubt of 'hang on a second, what went wrong, where did it go wrong and how do we fix it?', you've got the opportunity for it to arise again."
Despite expecting the upgrades to improve the team’s on-track performance, Neale kept a lid on expectations and stopped short of predicting a title challenge for the Woking based outfit.
"There's good reason why both Jenson and I would want to be relatively low key.
"None of us wants to be a hostage to fortune and setting ourselves up for a blow on the chin from [the media] isn't very funny.
"That's [a championship prediction] a long way out at the moment and we'll be better placed to comment on it as we approach the summer shutdown.”
The team will bring a “significant volume” of new parts to its MP4-28 car to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, which it hopes will kick start its difficult start to the year.
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| Photo: McLaren F1 |
However, the team’s managing director, Jonathan Neale, revealed during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in, that understanding how the team went off track in its design process is more important than making the 2013 car work immediately.
"We are essentially trying to sort out a correlation issue," he said during the teleconference. "It's really important that we sort out the issues with the car and the correlation.
"All of the time you've got that lingering doubt of 'hang on a second, what went wrong, where did it go wrong and how do we fix it?', you've got the opportunity for it to arise again."
Despite expecting the upgrades to improve the team’s on-track performance, Neale kept a lid on expectations and stopped short of predicting a title challenge for the Woking based outfit.
"There's good reason why both Jenson and I would want to be relatively low key.
"None of us wants to be a hostage to fortune and setting ourselves up for a blow on the chin from [the media] isn't very funny.
"That's [a championship prediction] a long way out at the moment and we'll be better placed to comment on it as we approach the summer shutdown.”