Friday: McLaren drivers disagree on the progress made

McLaren has yet to find the key to success on the Circuit de Catalunya. Both drivers are far down the standings in the last third of the table. Lewis Hamilton does no better than 13th place and Heikki Kovalainen 14th, both in the afternoon.

Paradoxically, even though they both frequent the same venues, they differ on the level of improvement of their single-seaters. Hamilton is more than disappointed while Kovalainen sees great progress accompanied by a hydraulic problem. Nonetheless, the team must redouble their efforts to ensure the minimum for tomorrow’s qualifications.

Lewis Hamilton – 14th and 13th:

« We are still far off, and I don’t feel any improvement. I think getting into Q3 tomorrow will be difficult. We are working, but unfortunately, the updates don’t have much effect. We lose a lot of time in turns three and nine because we don’t maintain enough speed like the other teams. But we continue the fight. »

Heikki Kovalainen – 19th and 14th:

« We had a gearbox problem in the first session caused by a hydraulic issue. Fortunately, the team was able to resolve this problem shortly afterward. So we were able to have a second session in peace. I’m really happy with the progress we have made. The new parts we have on the car seem to be working. I think we have improved our package since Bahrain, but we have to wait until tomorrow to compare our pace with our competitors. »

Martin Whitmarsh – Team Principal:

« Inevitably, when you arrive at a circuit with a large number of modifications that need to be assessed in a very short time frame, you have successes and failures. But this weekend, we are disciplined and realistic: We have always known that this would be a difficult circuit, but we have gathered a lot of data, which will allow us to study our performance overnight and improve the car for tomorrow. Are we as fast as we would like? No. »