After a very disappointing start to the season, McLaren-Honda find themselves in unfamiliar territory. However, according to both their drivers, they might not like what they see this weekend in Shanghai.
Even though he won twice in China, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was quoted as saying that Shanghai, like Sepang (Malaysia) has a “real mix of corners and some interesting fast stuff around the back of the circuit. Despite those similarities, however, I don’t think our car package will be as well suited here as it was in Malaysia, especially if the weather is as cold and windy as it usually is in early springtime in Shanghai.”
His teammate, Jenson Button added that “China’s two long straights – each preceded by slow- to medium-speed corners – will place extra emphasis on the power-unit. And there is a feeling that the expected cooler weather will make it harder to generate tyre temperature – which could mean that any progress we make doesn’t necessarily translate to a laptime benefit.”
What this means is that even if McLaren do manage to improve in several areas over the course of the weekend, we’ll probably not even notice it during qualifying or during the race on Sunday. Which is a shame, since we were looking forward to them perhaps even getting into the points this time.
Still, the reality is that they’re a long way from contenting for a title and quite some way from being competitive too.
Even so, Alonso was encouraged by the fact that they were able to “mix it with other cars and drivers” in Malaysia and he admitted that he was hoping to be able to do the same in China.
But because of the fact that the track will be so demanding on the Honda power-unit, we’re not expecting much from them this weekend.
PHOTOS
