Over the past few weeks, Martin Whitmarsh has been exceedingly positive in regards to McLaren's development of the lackluster MP4-28. However, former Williams Chief Engineer Mark Gillan, believes that McLaren will be unable to find a quick fix for their downforce issues.
Whitmarsh has expressed his gratitude for the hard work at Woking, as development work continues to close in on the front runners. The Team Principal has predicted yet more improvements ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, yet Mark Gillan believes that the team will not solve their issues at the speed which they have anticipated.
The former Chief Engineer is a well respected member of the paddock, who parted company with Williams at the start of the season. He stated, "I was surprised at how slow they were at the beginning of the season. They've had a couple of poor starts, but typically get it sorted. The fact they are obviously concerned about the development and how quickly they can improve things probably means the problems are down to suspension and the pick up points into the chassis which are quite difficult to change quickly. If it was just purely aerodynamic changes, I'd expect them to deal with it within a race or two, so it's probably going to take them quite a while."
McLaren are in danger of losing both championships before they have begun. Their evolutionary car was clearly a misjudgment which now has to be rectified. While they develop, the other teams will do the same, meaning that McLaren will have to work even harder to close the gap between them and their competitors. However, they managed it in 2009 and they have the capabilities of doing a similar thing in 2013.
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