McLaren have said that they believe their 2012 car ‘overperformed’ towards the end of last season.
Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said that the the 2012 McLaren out delivered what the team expected from data compiled through its wind tunnel model. Meaning that the 2012 car was better than its smaller scale wind tunnel counterpart. A slight difference in correlation between the full scale wind tunnel model and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) is not unusual.
In 2013 McLaren, by their own standards, has woefully underperformed. This, Whitmarsh said, was just a case of luck not going the Woking based teams way.
“Sometimes you’re lucky in life and you stick all the elements together and they add up. Sometimes they just don’t. There were times when it’s come good and we don’t really know why,” said Whitmarsh.
However, despite McLaren’s struggles in 2013 Jenson Button believes that the Belgian grand prix could be the turning point for his team. The 2009 champion believes that although the results have not been spectacular that the team has improved since the first race of the season in Australia. Button finished seventh at the Hungarian grand prix and is optimistic that the team is moving in the right direction.
“I think we’ve done a good job, and I think we’ll really show that at Spa. It’s a different type of circuit, and a circuit that should suit what we put on the car for this race. It [Hungary] was probably our best race of the year. That’s not saying much, but it’s been a tough season. There is progress there, and I think we should be happy,” said Button.
JB believes that the layout of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit will allow his team to show the progress that has been made. “I think the next race you’ll see us a lot closer to the top teams, and fighting with them. I’m looking forward to Spa already.”
The Belgian grand prix is sure to be a welcome return to racing after a month long break for Formula 1. Will McLaren welcome back some much needed pace?
