McLaren prepares to take the Barcelona test
After a positive start to the season in terms of performance but considerably less satisfying in terms of results, McLaren approaches Spain with the ambition to confirm its good form and fight for victory, as Lewis Hamilton did last year.
With two pole positions and a win to its credit, the McLaren team can be satisfied with having started the season on the right foot. However, if mistakes in the pits have penalized the British team on several occasions, the MP4-27 has been less dominant in races than in qualifying. After the Mugello tests, which were an opportunity for the Woking men to try various aerodynamic solutions and different settings, McLaren heads to Barcelona hoping to continue its early-season momentum: “Our performance in Barcelona during winter testing seemed promising, but the season’s hierarchy is always very difficult to read, so it’s tricky to predict who will be ahead next weekend. Nevertheless, we had a great race there last year, I was pushing behind Sebastian [Vettel] until the end of the race. I think we have a comparatively stronger car this year, so I hope we can have another solid race,” confides Lewis Hamilton.
For Jenson Button, the task is not any easier in Barcelona than elsewhere, even though everyone knows the circuit like the back of their hand: « Barcelona can be a fun circuit: we test there so often that every driver knows the track by heart, but it’s still an extremely tricky place to get everything right. But because all the teams know the track so well, even having a well-prepared car is not necessarily enough because sometimes it’s the smallest detail that determines the order of finish. You absolutely have to be good in all sectors if you want to win in Barcelona. It’s a circuit that penalizes poor balance almost unlike any other: if your car understeers here, then you’ll really suffer. There isn’t a corner that particularly stands out, but the sequence of turns 7 and 8, then the fast turn 9 is very smooth and offers a good feeling when you negotiate it correctly, especially in qualifying. »
Martin Whitmarsh, the director of the British team, joins the 2009 world champion and adds that the behavior of the tires will once again be closely monitored: « I think the drivers and engineers appreciate the technical challenge of the Barcelona circuit. You really set your configurations to the limits here: the balance of each car is so fine that the slightest imperfection appears. […] As we have seen during the first four races, we must add the tire puzzle to that: Barcelona should give the teams a better understanding of tire behavior in what should be typical « European » weather conditions, but there will still be a lot to learn. »
After putting pressure on Sebastian Vettel for a good part of the race in 2011, Lewis Hamilton knows better than anyone how difficult it can be to overtake on the Catalan circuit: « It has always been a difficult place to overtake – as I learned last year – but I really hope that the combination of DRS and KERS will make things a bit easier. I think it’s going to be one of the hardest circuits to overtake, but I hope to deliver a strong performance in qualifying to make the race as easy as possible for us. »
For Martin Whitmarsh, the Spanish Grand Prix is simply the litmus test for the effectiveness of a new regulation: It’s a technical circuit where overtaking is difficult. If the race is good here, then we should normally have an interesting season. As for 2012, we have already seen that the combination of DRS and KERS can spice up the race, so I hope an entertaining and action-packed Grand Prix awaits us.
