2011 McLaren MP4-12C

McLaren MP4-12C

MSRP: $225,000 to $250,000
600 hp; 100% carbon-fiber body; 3.8-liter, twin-turbo V8 engine; 1,000 total will be made, with 30% slotted for the U.S. (90 for initial launch).

McLaren F1 Team denied that the conversation

McLaren F1 Team denied that the conversation between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer during the Turkish Grand Prix means that the team stopped Jenson Button to overtake his team-mate.

Making the radio call between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer during the Turkish GP public led to many speculations regarding the possibility that McLaren have stopped Jenson Button to attack his team-mate.

Even though the Chief Engineer Phill Prew informed Hamilton that he will not be attacked by Button, McLaren say that the information was based on a simple supposition and not on a team strategy. Seconds after the conversation, Button moved ahead of his team-mate, but later Hamilton tool back the leader position and finished the GP in Istanbul first.

“Shortly after Lewis was told that Jenson wouldn’t overtake him, Jenson did overtake him. Phil gave an opinion to Lewis, and as it turned out his opinion was wrong. It’s as simple as that. The race was a bit quicker than expected both for the Red Bulls and for the McLarens, so we were consuming more fuel [than the target]. there’s no doubt that both of our drivers want to win. They were being told to look after fuel.”

“As a consequence of that Phil Prew had the opinion that Jenson wouldn’t overtake. Lewis was surprised by that information. He asked the question, Phil Prew gave an instinctive and immediate response, which was that he didn’t think that Jenson was going to pass. [But] Lewis wasn’t about to give up first place easily, and I think made a fairly robust overtake to ensure that he remained in the lead,” he said.

Right after Hamilton was leading again, McLaren said to Button to save fuel. The team denied the request as being a code used to stop Button to overtake Hamilton.

McLaren F1 Team for scarifying Jenson

Christian Horner accuses McLaren F1 Team for scarifying Jenson Button in the Japanese GP in order to allow Lewis Hamilton to fight for the podium.

Jenson Butto was the only driver of the first 10 on the starting grid which started the Japanese Grand Prix with prime tires, as the Brit’s  strategy was to stay on the track as much as possible to recover the gap that separated him from the drivers in front of him.

Although he became leader after all four title chasers have entered the pits, Button was not capable to get far enough, but he chose to stay on track instead of changing his hard tires with soft ones to fight for the 4th place with LewisHamilton. The strategy proved to be wrong, but Button climbed on 4th place afterHamilton had gearbox problems.

The way McLaren F1 Team managed the race strategy made Christian Horner, Red Bull F1 Team boss, believe that Button was a “sacrificial lamb” to keep Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso behind and help Hamilton, even though both drivers still have title chances.

“We were a bit concerned by Jenson’s race strategy, as we knew we would come out behind him and then he started to back everybody up towards Hamilton. It was sort of like being in a McLaren sandwich. But then it looked like Hamilton developed a problem and they aborted that strategy for Jenson. It looked a little bit like he was a sacrificial lamb. I don’t know. It just seemed strange,” said the Brit for Daily Telegraph.

Even so, McLaren denied this hypothesis by Martin Whitmarsh’s voice, who admits that Button’s strategy was wrong.

“Yes there was [the possibility to do that], but at that point we also had to consider Jenson. We wanted to give him enough time on the option tire, to have a go. If we had left him out there longer… it is not how we play our game. Maybe others would but that is not how we go motor racing,” McLaren F1 Team’s boss explained.

McLaren F1 Team is not capable to be a competitive

Jenson Button claims that McLaren F1 Team is not capable to be a competitive math for Red Bull Racing and Ferrari F1 Team in Australia, but he is optimistic about the coming updates.

McLaren is one of the teams that caught media’s attention at their F1 car launch, because of their extravagant rear diffuser.

Subsequently, the performances in tests were far from those anticipated, but the engineers have brought in Barcelona this week a new front wing an a sensor for the nose of the car that caught the attention, as well.

But the future is not so bright in the eyes of Jenson Button, who said that McLaren doesn’t seem capable of facing the rivals of Ferrari F1 Team and Red Bull Racing in Australian Grand Prix.

“I’d be surprised if we can match Red Bull and Ferrari when we get to Melbourne. It’s a big ask. To be on their pace is going to be tricky. It hasn’t been the best start to the year in terms of mileage, reliability and pace but we have made some progress. The laps I spent on the circuit on lower and higher fuel were quite a good improvement on what I experienced here at the last test. There is still more work needed to be as quick as Red Bull, Ferrari and maybe one or two other teams. You’re not going to be happy being the third fastest team, but there is a lot you can do from that position, and considering the last few tests and our pace, you’d be reasonably be happy with that,” said the Brit at the end of the first test day.