Valencia was a “blip” in form, says McLaren

2011 British Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Valencia, 2011

McLaren expect to return to their pre-Valencia form in the British Grand Prix this weekend.

Managing director Jonathan Neale said their performance in Valencia – where Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and Jenson Button sixth – was a “blip”.

Speaking during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in he said: “I don’t think we delivered to our full potential there. And therefore I’m certainly regarding it as a blip.

He said the team “under-performed” at Valencia: “We didn’t really get the car dialled in properly.

“We had single-lap performance as evidenced by the pace that we showed on Saturday, but we couldn’t get the tyres to last in the same way that both Ferrari and Red Bull did, so we were disappointed by that.

“We understand the reasons why and we’ve done something about it – not something that I can talk about in any detail for obvious reasons.

“So there’s a learning to be had from Valencia. But coming into Silverstone, of course, it’s a very different circuit. Canada and Valencia have broadly similar aerodynamic characteristics and there’d be no reason for anybody to make a read of our performance at those circuits relative to Silverstone.”

“We are catching Red Bull”

He said the team were closing the gap to Red Bull: “If anybody plots the underlying race pace and qualifying pace you’ll see that we are catching Red Bull.

“They still have had an advantage, certainly in qualifying, but they have been on record in the media recognising that we have had a faster race car than everyone, won a few races in the recent past, and will continue to keep that pressure up.

“Certainly they’ve had a qualifying advantage and that’s the thing we’ve got to work on, that’s harder.”

While admitting the change in rules on exhaust-blown diffusers had affected their planned upgrades for this weekend, he said they were still bringing several new parts for the car:

“We’ve got a range of upgrades for the car. The aerodynamic package will be improved. But I guess the technical landscape will be pretty much dominated by what happens to everybody’s car with the changes to the technical regulations on engine modes.

“There is no doubt it is going to affect all of the top teams. It’s definitely going to affect us, Red Bull have already said it’s going to affect them.

“The key question is: who’s it going to affect the most? And I don’t think we’re really going to know that until Saturday afternoon. I’m not going to speculate on that, but it’s certainly had quite a big effect on everybody.

“We’ve learned from the lessons of the past and we can fix that next time we come to a similar style of circuit. The guys should be optimistic because we’ve got some great upgrades for this weekend.”

Neale added: “We’re really looking forward to Silverstone: high-speed circuit and two British world champions, feels like a home Grand Prix and there’s a huge amount of excitement in the build-up.

“There was, actually, from Goodwood – anybody who was down at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend will also sense that the British motorsport season is really taking off.

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    Keith Collantine
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    32 comments on “Valencia was a “blip” in form, says McLaren”

    1. Even as a current McLaren fan, I have to wonder how much of this is true vs. smokescreen for their sponsors.

      1. It is a bit dramatic isn’t it?

    2. Blah blah blah blah ! Sic of Mclaren`s fake expectations, every race build up they say the same things and yet Red Bull still winning races.

      1. MagillaGorilla
        6th July 2011, 22:11

        Dont read articles dealing with McLaren then if you don’t think they can beat Red Bull though they’ve done it twice this year then that seems like a personal issue with you. Either way it’s no different than Ferrari going on about how they should have won a string of races already.

    3. McLarenFanJamm
      6th July 2011, 12:26

      Didn’t they also talk about the upgrades they were taking to Valencia? Upgrades that both Hamilton and Button later revealed to have been abandoned?

      I think they were caught out by the temperatures and the subsequent effect it had on the tyres, it worked in Ferrari and Red Bulls favour because their cars have been easier on the tyres this year. Ferrari so much so that they struggled to warm up the harder compounds in early races.

      Still, I’m not holding out any hope for McLaren beating Red Bull this weekend, despite how brilliant it would be if they did.

      1. it worked in Ferrari and Red Bulls favour because their cars have been easier on the tyres this year

        I would have to disagree. Mclaren haven’t been any harsher on their tyres than Red Bull of Ferrari.

      2. I don’t think they abandoned all of the aero updates; both Button and Hamilton qualified and raced the new triple element front wing. This has also been the subject of some ‘flexi wing’ debate:

        http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/mclaren-european-gp-wing-movement/

        What I do find worrying and at times annoying from Mclaren is how much they talk up their updates before each race. I remember being really excited by their first blown diffuser which was tested at last years British GP, and subsequently rejected by both drivers. Factor in the fact that RBR will undoubtedly bring updates of their own, I’d be surprised if Mclaren are within 0.5s of the Red Bulls on Saturday…still hoping for it though!

        1. I remember being really excited by their first blown diffuser which was tested at last years British GP, and subsequently rejected by both drivers.

          What I remember was that BUTTON didn’t feel comfortable with the car’s balance (as always!), and, because of BUTTON, the team choose to revert to the old configuration.

          Hamilton entended to use it…

          1. I thought it was because they didn’t have any proper dry testing conditions, and couldn’t get it to work right for a couple of weekends.

            Button is always complaining about balance.. and would probably find a load of complaints even he were driving the RB7. I’m pretty sure Mclaren were used to his whining, and didn’t scrap the blown diffuser on Jenson’s point of view exclusively.

            1. I remember reading that Gary Paffett worked in the simulator all night from Friday to Saturday of that race weekend, determining if they should run the updates or not. Based on his work and the feedback of the drivers, they decided to postpone it.

      3. I rather feel and read this like McLaren admitting that they underestimated setup work in Valencia when they used a big part of the friday to prepare some things for Silverstone and onward.

        1. McLarenFanJamm
          6th July 2011, 16:30

          Hmmm, now you mention it I see what you mean. But then surely the rest of the teams would have been doing the same thing? And they didn’t appear to suffer at all. Either that or McLaren are trying to get the jump on the others for Silverstone…

        2. But I remember watching FP1 or FP2 and the guys on 5Live were saying that Vettel was out doing ‘Silverstone-spec’ runs, so surely trying that out on a few runs as RBR and maybe some other teams did as well, would be a hell of a leap to explain their performance on the Sunday afternoon?

          Personally I think it was just a blip, the set up was wrong by the sounds of things, plus the high temperatures just ruined their weekend.

          1. Yeah he was doing that. But it seems Red Bull had either Webber giving more usable feedback or, more likely, just needed less work done to have the car work perfectly in Valencia.

            1. Yeah very true, it was only Vettel running in Silverstone mode. I hope things are mixed up a bit this weekend, if anything I think the midfield might tighten up even more.

    4. It would help if they did not build themselves up so much pre-race!

    5. At this point, all I can say is: “Here’s to hoping the umpteenth time’s a charm!”

      Either this pre-race self-hype is finally going to work for once, either we’re in for another disappointing McLaren GP weekend. Since it’s Silverstone, they better not have mouths larger than their upcoming performance.

      1. I fear they may do. It’s a bit repetitive really, sin’t it?

        1. The same MP3 file, once more… :-(

    6. In the post-Ron era it has become clear that McLaren’s expectation of their own pace, as reported in the media prior to a race weekend, is inversely proportional to their actual pace.

    7. i think the mac’s will feel the no blow floor a lot. if you remember pre season testing when their blown floor was’nt working the car was way down the order

      1. I think that was down to the “octopus” exhaust layout which caused overheating.

        1. McLarenFanJamm
          6th July 2011, 15:05

          Which they abandoned for a more traditional system similar to that of RBR and Ferrari

    8. omg, the denials! No wonder why they can’t advance their vehicles.

    9. i also think its sad that mr neale is relying so much on what red bull is saying

    10. McLaren = the new Ligier ?

    11. Keith is there a problem with this website?

      For the last few days…everytime Ive loaded the site my browser loses it and the page is recovered. Also there has been instances in the last few day where I have loaded the home page and the banners are there but no content. My PC is fine and all other pages load perfectly but theres always a ‘tab recovery’ and error log sending when loading f1 fanatic.

      Have you made any changes or aware of any issues recently Keith?

    12. Keith is there a problem with this website?

      For the last few days…everytime Ive loaded the site my browser loses it and the page is recovered. Also there has been instances in the last few day where I have loaded the home page and the banners are there but no content. My PC is fine and all other pages load perfectly but theres always a ‘tab recovery’ and error log sending when loading f1 fanatic.

      Everytime an f1 fantatic page reloads or refreshes the tab loses the site and needs to recover. It also says in the error that the webpage you have loaded has a problem.

      Have you made any changes or aware of any issues recently?

      1. JamieFranklinF1
        6th July 2011, 20:22

        I get that sometimes too (Internet Explorer).

    13. I don’t wish to call Mclaren liars but I think they’re forgetting Canada where they were off the pace in qualifying too. I’ll admit Canada and Valencia are fairly similar layouts while Silverstone is much quicker but if they want to catch Red Bull they can’t be on the pace at one track and off the next.

    14. I can’t beleive them this time I’m afraid, they have cried wolf too often, I just get excited on the Friday and end up depressed by the Monday, it’s not worth it… :P

    15. Because I have been hearing this sort of statements from McLaren, will it be fair to expect them to say Silverstone was another blip they had?
      Well hope not but probability-wise, I safely say odds are more than 50%. There goes the time with points to invincible Red Bull.

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