14/06/2010
NEWS STORY
As it continues its world championship fight back, McLaren is planning its next major upgrade for its home race at Silverstone.
On the back of successive victories in Turkey and Canada, the British team now leads the Constructors' Championship while its drivers are first and second in the Drivers' Championship.
However, realising that its Milton Keynes rivals, having lost out due to driver over enthusiasm in Turkey and tyre strategy in Canada, will spare no effort in its efforts to reclaim the lead, McLaren is stepping up its development programme.
"We have been through a lot of world championship fights and we have probably got a bit more experience in our team than Red Bull, but we don't underestimate them," team boss Martin Whitmarsh told reporters in Canada. "They are going to come back strongly and we have to make sure that we continue to develop the car, if we don't develop the car at a quick-enough pace, then we will not win races and we will not win this championship.
"We won't stand still," he continued. "We have a reasonably big upgrade that we are fighting to have for Silverstone, and if that is there then I would be disappointed if it is not a much bigger step than that.
"We have to take it one race at a time," he added. "We have to go to Valencia and try to capitalise on the form we have at the moment with the type of the circuit that Valencia is, and then make sure that we secure a decent step forward at Silverstone that helps us maintain the pace. If we don't, if we fail to develop the car, we will get overhauled and beaten by more than just Red Bull."
While the long straights at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve were always going to favour McLaren, the lack of high-speed high-downforce corners was always going to go against Red Bull. On the other hand, both teams gambled on tyre strategy and the Woking outfit won.
Looking ahead to Valencia, scene of the next round of the championship, Red Bull's Christian Horner agrees that the Spanish street track will once again favour the silver cars.
"I think Valencia plays to McLaren's strengths again," he told the BBC, "there's a predominance of straight line advantage there. But then we come back more to our hunting ground, the likes of Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungary. They are going to be tracks that play more to our advantage.
"I think there is a long way to go in the championship, it's going to ebb and flow and it's important that on days like today we limit the damage as much as possible."