Lewis Hamilton has played down former team-mate Jenson Button"s title chances

Posted on March 10, 2013 by adminsports

Forget Button, Alonso is the one I really have to beat: Hamilton sets his sights on driving back to the top with Mercedes

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The edge: Damon Hill believes Fernando Alonso will win the title ahead of Sebastian Vettel

WHAT'S NEW THE TYRES

Pirelli have been instructed to supply tyres that will degrade faster. The subtle changes are designed to make them harder to manage by drivers, leading to more pit-stops and greater excitement. During winter testing the paddock was bewildered by the rate of tyre wear and this threatens to be significant in the early races. Speed may have to be sacrificed so tyres last longer.

To witness his victory in atrocious conditions in the final race of last season in Brazil — his 15th victory — was to see the baton being passed from Hamilton to Button inside the team.

‘It’s the right place for me to be for the long term,’ said Button, 33. ‘Some people have left because they feel there is another challenge or something missing from their position.

‘There is still so much to achieve here. When we had the launch of our 2013 car, it was amazing to see cars representing 50 years of McLaren brought out; to look at the team’s history and the championships won. We really are a spectacular team.

‘I want to add to that history; not just this year, but for the coming years.’ Button is at his most dangerous in Melbourne, having won three of the past four Australian Grands Prix, although where McLaren’s performance is in relation to Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, or, for that matter, Mercedes is a mystery — 12 days of inconclusive winter testing offered fluctuating evidence of the pecking order we can expect Down Under.

‘It’s been an extremely hard-to-read winter,’ said Button. ‘Varying fuel loads and levels of tyre degradation mean it’s hard to predict accurately who will arrive in Australia with the best-sorted car. But I love the place.’

Danger: Vettel is chasing his fourth World Championship

WHAT'S NEW THE CIRCUITS

Bernie Ecclestone had hoped for a new race in New Jersey this year to replace Valencia in June but that hit money problems. There is a vacant date, which the underwhelming circuit in Turkey had hoped to fill. And if Portugal and Austria don’t get it, Europe’s weakening status in Formula One will be confirmed with just seven races this season — the fewest since 1963.

Hamilton has not taken a backward glance since he took the gamble last autumn of tying his future to Mercedes in exchange for a three-year contract worth 60million, with the freedom for his management company, XIX Entertainment, to broaden his commercial portfolio.

‘It needs to be made clear that it was more lucrative [in salary] to stay with McLaren,’ insisted Hamilton.

His motivation in moving from McLaren, where he could expect to challenge for the championship this season, is governed by an ambition to replicate what Michael Schumacher achieved, year after year, with Ferrari and what Vettel is accomplishing with his dominance at Red Bull. At McLaren, the hall of fame is inhabited by the ghost of Ayrton Senna.

At 28, Hamilton is arriving at his peak years with 21 victories already in a career that has never lacked controversy on the track, or off it. Perhaps he has never driven better than last year. ‘You want to be the one,’ he told a small gathering at the BRDC Clubhouse at Silverstone.

No 4: Max Chilton becomes the fourth British driver in F1

WHAT'S NEW THE DRIVERS

Max Chilton joins Lewis Hamilton (now with Mercedes on a 60million deal), Jenson Button and Paul di Resta as the fourth British driver in the championship after being fast-tracked by Marussia.

Chilton, 21, benefits from having AON insurance vice-chairman Grahame Chilton as his father. He is worth 93m and owns the Carlin Motorsport team, where Chilton raced in GP2.

An F1 seat for this season reportedly costs 1.8m but Chilton denies he is a spoilt rich kid. ‘No team are going to let you behind the wheel if you’re not up to it,’ he says. Even so, Pastor Maldonado contributes 29m to the williams team budget through sponsorship from Venezuela’s state oil company, and Williams’ newest driver, 21-year-old Valtteri Bottas, from Finland, found the budget to secure the seat from Bruno Senna.

Chilton will be joined at Marussia by Frenchman Jules Bianchi after the team’s first choice, Luiz Riaza, failed to deliver promised funding.

Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) and Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) have also paid for their seats, Which means five of the 22 drivers next week will be making their Formula One debut.
Susie Wolff, wife of McLaren shareholder and Mercedes director Toto Wolff, is McLaren’s development driver, the second woman recently in F1 after Marussia’s Maria de Villota, who lost an eye in a test drive last year.

‘I was the one for a short period of time, as the youngest world champion, then I was toppled by Vettel. Fernando had his success. I expect myself to win.

'I expect myself to excel. Ultimately, I want to achieve greatness. I want to prove my abilities year after year. Michael is seen as an all-time great, Seb is, too. I want to be seen as great as well.’

In winter testing, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have shown that Mercedes have made a startling improvement in performance after winning just one grand prix in the past three years.

‘I’m 100 per cent confident and happy with the decision that I made — and keeping myself out of trouble!’ said Hamilton.

‘The more time I spend at the factory the more excited I become. It’s just a beautiful place to be and I’m happier with the environment I’m in. I don’t have anything negative to say about McLaren — I was lucky to be given the opportunity by the team to get into Formula One.

‘Had I stayed I was guaranteed to be competitive.

'Yet I’m not looking to get one over McLaren. I know that I have gone to a team who have been unable to compete with the car I had last year — at some races, there was a deficit in qualifying of 1.9sec from Mercedes to McLaren — but we all have a hunger to change. I think Mercedes will impress this year.’

Hamilton will be driven to prove that he was correct to free himself from McLaren, where the management structure made him feel claustrophobic, to fulfil a search for ultimate greatness.

But with a nudge to his growing maturity, Hamilton said: ‘When I look at it sensibly, I realise I have quite a lot of time left.’

Robert Kubica could make F1 return as Pirelli test driver

Posted on September 22, 2012 by adminsports

Kubica could make Formula One return as Pirelli test driver

UPDATED:

11:21 GMT, 22 September 2012

Robert Kubica could be on his way back to Formula One as test driver for Pirelli.

The Italian tyre manufacturer face losing Jaime Alguersuari for 2013 as the Spaniard has been linked with a return of his own to a team after being dropped by Toro Rosso at the end of last year.

The route being mentioned for Alguersuari is Force India given the speculation surrounding drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg and their own links to McLaren and Ferrari.

Road to recovery: Kubica suffered life-threatening injuries after a rally crash

Phil Duncan F1 blog

Alguersuari's departure would open
the door for Kubica, who has just embarked on a rallying comeback after
sustaining horrific injuries in an accident 19 months ago.

It is understood Kubica's right hand
that was severely damaged in the crash still requires further time to
ensure he can fully operate an F1 car.

But Pirelli Motorsport director Paul Hembery is refusing to rule out the prospect of giving Kubica an opportunity.

On the move: Alguersuari is set for a return to main grid

'We are more likely to work with
Robert in rallying I guess, rather than F1, but we will see,' said
Hembery on Kubica, who drove for BMW Sauber for four years before a
season with Renault in 2011 prior to his accident.

'I haven't spoken to Robert for some
time, but we are working on a few projects that might involve him, so it
might be a possibility.

'I don't know if he is able to do it at the moment.

'But he is that type of person if,
physically, he could get back in, maybe doing a year with us would put
him in a good situation to come back in in 2014. It would be wonderful
if we could do that.

'We want to continue our success
level of helping drivers into F1, and after an F1 drive the Pirelli test
deal has to be the best drive in the world.'

Lewis Hamilton fastest in practice for Hungarian Grand Prix

Posted on July 27, 2012 by adminsports

Hamilton on song in Budapest as McLaren star tops timesheets in both sessions

UPDATED:

14:21 GMT, 27 July 2012

Lewis Hamilton knocked back a practice double for a much-needed tonic ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Collecting just four points from his last three races, Hamilton has fallen 62 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.

Fastest: Hamilton races in the heat in Hungary

Hamilton stated he could not afford
any more 'dents' to his championship hopes after failing to score in the
European and German Grands Prix for very different reasons.

In desperate need of a strong
result, ideally a victory prior to the summer break that follows this
weekend's event in Budapest, Hamilton was quickest at the end of both
practice sessions, the second of which was again hit by rain, as was the
case last week at Hockenheim.

The 27-year-old led a McLaren
one-two in the initial 90-minute outing with a time of one minute 22.821
seconds, finishing ahead of McLaren team-mate Jenson Button by
0.101secs.

Promising: Button was second fastest in the morning's session

That, however, was on the harder,
slightly slower medium-compound Pirelli tyre, so come FP2 when the
faster soft rubber was used, Hamilton was almost a second quicker.

With a time of 1:21.995secs,
Hamilton finished 0.185secs up on Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus, with
Williams' Bruno Senna showing encouraging signs with a 1:22.253.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and
Alonso were up next, with Button sixth on the timesheet, 0.752secs
adrift of Hamilton, with Paul Di Resta a solid seventh in his Force
India, 0.799secs down.

Leading the way: Alonso (above) and Webber (below) are first and second in the standings

Reigning world champion Sebastian
Vettel was in close attendance to Di Resta, followed by Romain Grosjean
in his Lotus and Mercedes' Michael Schumacher.

For the second successive FP2, though, Schumacher – known as the 'rainmaster' – ended the session in ignominy.

Exactly a week ago Schumacher blamed
a lack of concentration for a spin late on into a barrier which saw him
damage the front and rear of the car in front of his home fans in
Germany.

On this occasion, with rain falling at the midway point of the session, Schumacher was simply caught out by the conditions.

On the intermediate wet-weather
tyres, Schumacher had no grip as he attempted to turn into the
left-hander at turn six, locking up and sliding straight on into a tyre
wall.

As conditions failed to dry out
enough for anyone to switch to slick tyres late on, it effectively made
the session one of two halves, with only a handful of drivers opting not
to go out for a run in the wet, including Hamilton, Raikkonen and
Button.

Off track: Schumacher's Mercedes is towed away after he collided with the wall

But with rain forecast for the race,
those who did will at least have some valuable data to fall back on
should that be the case.

Below 10th-placed Schumacher on the
timesheet was the second-placed man in the standings, Red Bull's Mark
Webber, but he looked far from happy with his day's work as he trailed
Hamilton by 1.819secs in 14th place.

Propping up the times was HRT's Narain Karthikeyan, the Indian 5.827secs down, 0.7secs adrift of team-mate Pedro de la Rosa.

Fully focused: Button (above) and Hamilton (below) are hoping for improved performances in Hungary

British Grand Prix 2012: Wet conditions at Silverstone practice

Posted on July 6, 2012 by adminsports

Wet and wild! Drivers struggle in treacherous conditions at Silverstone practice in front of record crowd

UPDATED:

12:34 GMT, 6 July 2012

The expected heavy rain and grey skies dominated first practice ahead of Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Remarkably, the atrocious weather failed to dampen the enthusiasm of many of the fans, with a record 80,000 for a Friday looking on.

Those under the grandstands would have been naturally welcome of the shelter, but those in the open air were subjected to a non-stop deluge throughout the 90 minutes as they huddled under umbrellas.

Wet and wild: Vitaly Petrov (above) and Romain Grosjean (below) struggle to keep their cars on track

Wet and wild: Romain Grosjean struggles to keep his Lotus on the track

When the session began the rain was relatively light, allowing the majority of the field an opportunity to get out on track.

Ordinarily, wet weather on many other circuits around the world would result in the drivers opting to sit in the garage knowing warmer, drier climes would be on the way.

But with more rain forecast across the weekend as Britain's sorry summer evolves into the wettest on record, there was a case to at least get some laps under their belts.

Home favourites: Hamilton (above) and Button below kick up spray on the Silverstone track

Unfortunately, the rain grew in intensity as the session wore on, resulting in the teams and drivers deciding to avoid the worst of the conditions.

Appreciably there were a number who spun through the puddles, fortunately without accident.

As Marussia's Timo Glock jokingly remarked: 'Bit of swimming today. Only six laps in FP1. UK weather is unreal.'

It has to be remembered, as teams only have three sets of full wet Pirelli tyres for a weekend, they were taking precautions not to do too much running and so waste their rubber.

Saturated: Stewards work to sweep water of the track

Come the conclusion it was Lotus' Romain Grosjean at the top of a largely irrelevant timesheet, even for a Friday, with a lap of one minute 56.552secs, completing the second-highest total of 13 laps.

Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo was 0.275secs adrift, with Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren the only other driver to finish within a second of Grosjean, the home hero 0.622secs down.

For the record, Sauber's Sergio Perez was 1.112secs behind with Felipe Massa in his Ferrari and Red Bull's Mark Webber 1.567secs and 1.911secs off the pace.

Record crowd: The weather did not prevent fans from flocking to Northamptonshire

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher for Mercedes were also inside two seconds of Grosjean, with the former managing 19 laps, but also under investigation by the stewards for a pit-lane entry infringement.

Reigning double world champion Sebastian Vettel was 2.862secs down in 11th, with McLaren's Jenson Button over five seconds adrift in 17th.

Tough test: Rain is forecast throughout the weekend

Current championship leader Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari and the Force India duo of Paul di Resta and reserve Jules Bianchi, standing in for Nico Hulkenberg, all failed to set a time as they managed four, three and one installation lap respectively.

Beyond the track it became clear Silverstone's traffic management system, given a 1million upgrade for this year, was falling apart as many fans were Tweeting about the horrors of being stuck in stationary traffic, missing out on the first session.

Meanwhile, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber unveiled their Wings for Life cars ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Both will drive their specially-branded RB8s, which each feature more than 25,000 photos that have been sent in by fans, throughout the race weekend.

Wings for Life: Webber sits in his the charity-sponsored Red Bull car

Wings for Life: Webber sits in the charity-sponsored Red Bull car

Wings for Life: Webber sits in his the charity-sponsored Red Bull car

Organised for Wings for Life, the charity that is striving to find a cure for spinal cord injury, the initiative was open to fans all over the world who wanted to race with Webber and Vettel at this year's Silverstone race and support an incredible cause.

McLaren make 800 pit-lane practice stops in a week

Posted on July 6, 2012 by adminsports

McLaren insist they've combated pit-lane pain with 800 practice stops in a week

UPDATED:

21:00 GMT, 5 July 2012

McLaren are confident that completing 800 practice tyre changes this week has solved the pit-stop problems which have hurt Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton this season.

Sporting director Sam Michael has been under the spotlight after a string of errors, but he feels his crew have improved.

‘We had the fastest stationary time in Montreal and improved that in Valencia with the 2.6sec stop,’ said Michael.

Fine-tuning: A McLaren technician works on Jenson Button's car at Silverstone

Victim: Lewis Hamilton has endured a series of pit-lane blunders this season

Phil Duncan F1 blog

‘But our target is not the fastest stationary time but the fastest average. Our target is three-second stops consistently. On Monday we completed 800 pit stops with no faults at all.’

Meanwhile, Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has dismissed Button’s claim that fans could be starved of action in practice on Friday because teams fear using their wet and intermediate tyres before qualifying and the race.

‘The tyres are not a problem,’ he said. ‘Teams will not want to run in seriously wet weather in case their cars crash.’

Christian Horner blasts "complex" F1 season

Posted on June 13, 2012 by adminsports

Horner blasts 'complex' season as Red Bull chief admits tyres are a mystery

UPDATED:

14:06 GMT, 12 June 2012

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has described the fight to get on top of the current Formula One campaign as 'complex'.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fourth in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix after starting from the 32nd pole position of his career.

It was only the seventh time Vettel had clinched pole but failed to finish on the podium as Red Bull struggled with strategy.

Two-time world champion: Vettel was in New York on Monday, promoting the Grand Prix of America, which will take place in November

Phil Duncan F1 blog

Primarily, it was knowing which route to adopt with the Pirelli tyres that ultimately proved critical, with McLaren's two-stop plan holding sway over the those pitting just once.

Fernando Alonso and Vettel both paid the price, finishing fifth and fourth respectively when running first and second with eight laps remaining, the latter eventually making a late second stop after being caught by Hamilton that enabled him to pass the Spaniard.

'It was a difficult race, and we've quite a few things to reflect on and try to understand,' said Horner.

'Ultimately we salvaged some reasonable points, beating Fernando.

Feel the fourth: Vettel slipped back after starting from pole in Montreal

'Lewis adopted a two-stop (strategy) and made it work. At one stage it looked like quite a bold thing to give up the lead.

'It was a very difficult strategic race. Things are complex (at the moment), that's for sure. Strategically it's very difficult to read.

'You are trying to make judgements through a race based on the feedback you have from your own car and the information you have around you, and it's tricky.

'Two guys that went on a one stop, one started 15th (Sergio Perez for Sauber) and the other at the back end of the top 10 (Lotus' Romain Grosjean) and they came out third and second.

'We qualified on pole, were in the lead on lap 15, yet ran into trouble seven laps before the end.'

Asked whether the season had become too much of a lottery, Horner replied: 'I think (the word) lottery is too harsh, but I would say it's certainly challenging.'

Jenson Button: F1 becoming a lottery

Posted on May 26, 2012 by adminsports

Button: F1 becoming a lottery and fans will soon tyre of it

UPDATED:

23:02 GMT, 25 May 2012

Jenson Button has expressed fears Formula One is becoming too much of a lottery which is leaving even the best engineering brains baffled as to how to make their cars consistently quick.

Button's warning came as he prepared for today's all-important qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix, a race where grid position is paramount given the tight and twisty nature of the glamorous street circuit.

Signing star: Button meets the fans in Monaco

While this season's championship has been heralded as the most exciting for years with five drivers in five different cars winning the opening five races, Button feels fans could soon become as confused as the teams as they struggle to fathom how to keep Pirelli's latest tyres in the 'sweet spot'.

'The fans love the fact it is exciting but I think it will get to a point where they will wonder who they are supporting and why someone is winning and someone is losing,' said Button.

'Why is everyone a loser and everyone a winner Look at Pastor Maldonado (of Williams who won last time out in Spain), he qualified 17th in Bahrain and qualified second in the next race in Barcelona.

'He was consistently qualifying down the order and then suddenly he was second.

Ready to roll: Tyres are responsible for some interesting results this season

'There are some things we can do to help it which we have done already. But also you start doing stuff that is unusual in the engineering world. When you engineer the car and you change something it should do something in that direction, but it doesn't. So you try the opposite and sometimes in works.

'It is very strange and it is all because you cannot get the tyres in the right working range. Hopefully it will get to a point where we all understand what is going on.'

For now, Button is adamant everyone in the pit lane is still guessing when it comes to getting the best from their cars. And the 2009 world champion is clinging to the hope that McLaren's engineers can unlock the secret of consistent speed before their rivals.

'That's the worry,'

conceded Button who sits 16 points behind co-leaders Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

'If you can work out where the tyres are quicker than everyone else you have got a great chance of winning the championship.

'We have just got to keep trying to find it. Everyone is in the same position so we have got to hope we are cleverer than the rest of the people in the pit lane.'

Sebastian Vettel hopes his tyre gamble won"t blow up as Red Bull chase glory in Spain

Posted on May 12, 2012 by adminsports

Vettel hopes his tyre gamble won't blow up as Red Bull chase glory in Spain

UPDATED:

14:52 GMT, 12 May 2012

Sebastian Vettel is hoping a tactical qualifying gamble will reap its rewards in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Vettel will start eighth after failing to set a time in the top-10 shoot-out, aborting his hot lap in order to give him 'a free choice of tyres' on which to start the race.

With wear and degradation of the Pirelli tyres crucial ahead of the event, grid position is potentially not as important as has so often been the case at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Gamble: Sebastian Vettel will start from 8th on the grid with a free choice of race tyre

In 21 races at this track the man on pole has gone on to win on 16 occasions, whilst only once has the victor not come from the front row, in 1996 when Michael Schumacher won from third.

But in this topsy-turvy season, in which there have been four different winners in the opening four races, it would not be a surprise if those statistics were turned on their head.

Reigning champion Vettel said: 'There was nothing wrong. We decided to abort the lap to have a free choice of tyres for the race. If I had set a lap (time) we would have to start the race on soft tyres.

Point to prove: World champion Vettel leads the drivers' championship

'In Q2 the first run was crucial. I didn't manage to pull a lap out, so I had to use my final set of (soft) tyres to get into Q3.'

Vettel has conceded, though, his Red Bull was 'simply not quick enough', adding: 'We'll see how it goes for tomorrow. We were a bit surprised how much of a step the others have made, but I'm quite confident for the race, we always have a good race car.

'And we have a couple of new sets (of the hard tyre) which has proved successful for others in previous races this year.'

Supporting Vettel, who currently leads the title race by four points from Lewis Hamilton who grabbed pole with ease, team boss Christian Horner said: 'It's a very different game this year. Ultimately Sebastian didn't have great one-lap pace – maybe it was the wind – but you have to look at it two ways.

'Going into the race with four new sets of tyres is an advantage. Mark (Webber, who qualified 12th) has four sets of new tyres.

'Seb has effectively used one more set, so F1 is a strategic game.'

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton could be fifth different winner

Posted on May 12, 2012 by adminsports

Come on Lewis, everyone can be a winner! Thrills and spills expected at Spanish Grand Prix

UPDATED:

21:00 GMT, 11 May 2012

The last time grand prix racing was this tightly contested Liverpool had wrapped up the title while Manchester City were facing up to life in the second tier.

You have to go back 29 years to find a time in Formula One when five different drivers driving five different cars won the opening five races of the season. But at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday there is every chance that statistic will be matched.

One driver who had a share of the spoils back in 1983 was John Watson, the Ulsterman having scythed through the field from 22nd on the grid in his McLaren to take the win at the United States Grand Prix West.

Taking it easy: Lewis Hamilton hopes to get off the mark in Barcelona this weekend

Watson pointed to the rule changes ahead of that season as the major factor why success was shared so evenly, notably the banning of ‘ground effect’ cars and consequently the need for new aerodynamic packages.

‘That was a massive change and nobody knew what was going to be good, bad or indifferent,’ conceded Watson.

It was also an era when teams and drivers were coming to terms with the benefit of pit stops for fresh tyres and fuel. Notably Brabham — then owned by Bernie Ecclestone — and Williams.

There are certainly parallels to be drawn with the current campaign, the complexities of getting the best from Pirelli’s latest brand of fast-degrading tyre and the banning of the exhaust-blown diffuser having seriously levelled the playing field.

‘That rule change was almost singularly directed towards Red Bull,’ claimed Watson. ‘They have been the most penalised because they had done a good job compared to everyone who hadn’t quite got to grips with it.’

Spanish sizzler: Hamilton during practice for Sunday's race in Barcelona

Even so, Sebastian Vettel’s trademark crooked finger victory salute was back in evidence last time out as he and Red Bull took their first win of the season in Bahrain. Will that combination be back to the dominance of last season from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards

Recalling how matters started to shift in favour of Alain Prost and Renault in 1983, Watson said: ‘If I had to put my money on who would win the championship, I would have put it on Prost.

‘The Renault was fundamentally a good car in both qualifying and in the race.’

But the name on the drivers’ championship trophy that year was that of Brazilian Nelson Piquet, the Brabham driver pinching the title from Prost in the last race in South Africa despite winning just three grands prix.

‘In the last 10 or 12 years, we have seen McLaren, Williams, Benetton/Renault, Ferrari and, most recently, Red Bull dominate a championship to such an extent that it became, frankly, uninteresting,’ said Watson.

In the running: Mark Webber could also be the fifth different winner

‘In my generation if a driver won three or four grands prix in the season there was a very good chance he would be a world champion.’

Should the 2012 season continue to be so tightly fought, a similar tally may well be enough to see a driver crowned. Such a scenario would certainly be a welcome departure from Vettel’s procession of last season in which he took the title with four races remaining by winning 11 of them.

Yet another different driver on the top step of the podium tomorrow will go a long way to ensuring there are no such foregone conclusions and that the title battle goes all the way to the wire in Brazil in November.

Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen are all potential candidates to keep the unpredictable run going in Spain.

Formula One, as Watson would dearly love, may yet wind back the clock to 1983 — even if Manchester City are crowned champions and Liverpool end up ninth not long after the champagne corks have popped in Spain.

Spanish Grand Prix

Martin Whitmarsh blasts Pirelli criticism

Posted on May 9, 2012 by adminsports

McLaren chief Whitmarsh tyred of Pirelli criticism after Schuey's 'raw eggs' remark

UPDATED:

17:52 GMT, 9 May 2012

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes it is wrong to criticise Pirelli for the quality of their tyres this year.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher has been particularly outspoken, claiming he has so far been unable to drive on the limit in races due to the rapid rate of tyre degradation.

The 43-year-old Mercedes star continued his attack on Pirelli by claiming the current rubber was like driving 'on raw eggs'.

Critical: Schumacher has spoken out against this year's Pirelli tyres

Whitmarsh, though, feels there is a considerable amount of skill required to get the best out of the tyres, which comes down to a combination of driver and team working in harmony.

'There's no doubt the tyres are a definite challenge within Formula One and they have added to the spectacle,' said Whitmarsh.

'There's also no doubt when a driver has had a bad race he will complain about them.

Tyred: Whitmarsh has called on the Pirelli detractors to get on with it

'But if they made tyres that were very robust and not challenging in terms of management from either the team or driver's perspective then I'm sure the spectators will be critical of the tyres as they won't create the right spectacle.

'In summary, they are challenging and there have been times when they have certainly given up.

'The last race in Bahrain was certainly one of those times, where we weren't in the right window of operation and that affected our performance in the race quite dramatically.

'But I think it would be wrong to criticise the tyre. I think you've got to look at you as a team and what the drivers are doing and look at how to manage the situation.'

After a particularly problematic race in Bahrain last time out when Lewis Hamilton finished eighth and Jenson Button retired a lap from the finish, Whitmarsh knows McLaren have to raise their game for the start of the European season this weekend in Spain.

Phil Duncan F1 blog

One aspect that has been raised is the nose of the car which was put through its paces on the final afternoon of last week's three-day test in Mugello.

Although still far removed from the stepped noses of some of their rivals this season, it is clear McLaren are desperately seeking ways to improve performance.

Whitmarsh has conceded there is 'a reasonable chance' it will be used around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

'If you look at the detail, the height of the front of the nose is one of the more minor pieces of the new front wing assembly,' said Whitmarsh.

'There are a range of things. We gathered a lot of information.

'It's unusual at this stage for us to have an in-season test so we felt we had to use that to log some data.

'As you saw, there were all sorts of appendages and sensors etc. fitted to the cars to measure things.'

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Tag Archives: pirelli

Lewis Hamilton has played down former team-mate Jenson Button"s title chances

Robert Kubica could make F1 return as Pirelli test driver

Lewis Hamilton fastest in practice for Hungarian Grand Prix

British Grand Prix 2012: Wet conditions at Silverstone practice

McLaren make 800 pit-lane practice stops in a week

Christian Horner blasts "complex" F1 season

Jenson Button: F1 becoming a lottery

Sebastian Vettel hopes his tyre gamble won"t blow up as Red Bull chase glory in Spain

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton could be fifth different winner

Martin Whitmarsh blasts Pirelli criticism