McLaren hopeful of strong outing in Spain

McLaren are confident they have taken a step forward in performance ahead of next weekend`s Spanish Grand Prix, which will mark the start of the European season.

The British team won the season-opening race in Australia but were unable to stop rivals Ferrari from taking commanding victories in the next two races in Malaysia and Bahrain.

McLaren have dropped back to third place in the standings, behind the Italian squad and BMW, who lead the constructors` championship.

In this week`s test in Barcelona, McLaren introduced several updates that they are hoping will allow them to be more competitive next week.

“The Spanish Grand Prix sees us entering the European season and McLaren, along with all the other teams, will be in Barcelona with significant upgrade packages on the cars,” said McLaren`s F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh in a team preview.

“The cars remain relatively consistent over the course of the flyaway races and this race weekend is the first opportunity to understand how we have moved forward with performance and developed the MP4-23 in comparison with our primary competitors.

“We are confident that we have improved the performance of the car, but this week`s test was not an accurate indicator of performance, so we will need to wait for the race to establish how the MP4-23 will fair.”

Lewis Hamilton, aiming to fight back following a dismal Bahrain Grand Prix, is also optimistic McLaren will enjoy a strong outing in Spain.

The Briton, however, admits it`s hard to predict how much the other teams have improved.

“It`s always difficult to predict these things as all the teams are continuously progressing,” he said. “Winter testing there was positive and this week we have covered a good amount of laps. I feel we have a competitive package at the track; the car seems to work quite well.

“We have a range of new components coming on board for this race which we tested this week and had some positive results, but we are not alone in doing this.”

18.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ McLaren    ▪ www.autosport.com