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Formula 1
F1: Whitmarsh Praises Determined Hamilton
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says Lewis Hamilton drive was gutsy...
Martin Whitmarsh is team boss at McLaren. (Photo: Getty Images)
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has praised Lewis Hamilton for his gutsy drive to 10th place in Korea, despite a series of problems.
Hamilton had a broken rear anti-roll bar which both slowed him down and led to an extra stop due to excessive tire wear. Later in the race he picked up a section of artificial grass, which prevented the diffuser from working properly.
“I feel today was probably one of the hardest one points that this team has earned in my experience,” said Whitmarsh. “Lewis did a fantastic job, he was incredibly tenacious and heroic to do what he did, because there he was in a position where he was fighting to be on the podium, he had a rear anti-roll bar failure, at which point the balance of the car was destroyed, his ability to conserve tires was gone.
“The way he overcame that, he got fighting again, and at the end had he not also picked up half an acre of Astroturf I think he would have had a pretty good chance of getting past both the Toro Rossos, and scored a few more points.
“My instinct was we’re not going to get to the end of the race probably, because we’ll eat all our tyres, but certainly if we do get to the end of the race, we won’t be anywhere near points at all. We fought on and again I can’t say enough about Lewis’s fighting spirit to be able to achieve that one point, it was an incredible drive.”
Meanwhile McLaren’s day was made even worse by a first lap retirement for Jenson Button, after he was hit by Kamui Kobayashi.
“I’m also of course disappointed for Jenson, who’d made a great start, got past both of the Mercedes, was on the prime tire, and was in a good position with that prime tire to have a strategy that was going to get well up into the points and up towards the front.”
Whitmarsh says that the team has not given up on the championship fight.
“I think it’s pretty tough, I think what we’ve got to do is focus on four races, try and win them, and try and score the maximum number of points. You can’t do anything other than that. I think the gap isn’t that great to Red Bull if we keep the car together, and qualify properly. We will be developing the car and fighting to score points, and so will they, and so will Ferrari.”
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
Hamilton had a broken rear anti-roll bar which both slowed him down and led to an extra stop due to excessive tire wear. Later in the race he picked up a section of artificial grass, which prevented the diffuser from working properly.
“I feel today was probably one of the hardest one points that this team has earned in my experience,” said Whitmarsh. “Lewis did a fantastic job, he was incredibly tenacious and heroic to do what he did, because there he was in a position where he was fighting to be on the podium, he had a rear anti-roll bar failure, at which point the balance of the car was destroyed, his ability to conserve tires was gone.
“The way he overcame that, he got fighting again, and at the end had he not also picked up half an acre of Astroturf I think he would have had a pretty good chance of getting past both the Toro Rossos, and scored a few more points.
“My instinct was we’re not going to get to the end of the race probably, because we’ll eat all our tyres, but certainly if we do get to the end of the race, we won’t be anywhere near points at all. We fought on and again I can’t say enough about Lewis’s fighting spirit to be able to achieve that one point, it was an incredible drive.”
Meanwhile McLaren’s day was made even worse by a first lap retirement for Jenson Button, after he was hit by Kamui Kobayashi.
“I’m also of course disappointed for Jenson, who’d made a great start, got past both of the Mercedes, was on the prime tire, and was in a good position with that prime tire to have a strategy that was going to get well up into the points and up towards the front.”
Whitmarsh says that the team has not given up on the championship fight.
“I think it’s pretty tough, I think what we’ve got to do is focus on four races, try and win them, and try and score the maximum number of points. You can’t do anything other than that. I think the gap isn’t that great to Red Bull if we keep the car together, and qualify properly. We will be developing the car and fighting to score points, and so will they, and so will Ferrari.”
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
Spanish Grand Prix
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