Some stories ahve come out of Spain this week that McLaren looks markedly off the pace of the other teams and while F1B is intrigued by testing we also know, thanks to Ferrari, that testing is just that…testing. It is hard to determine a cars season-long performance from winter testing but you can get an overall idea of what the field looks like and who may be on and off pace. More so the teams at the test rather than journalists or bloggers.
Having said that, many in the press and even F1B posted some comments about McLaren’s form in Spain at Jerez. So much so that Ron Dennis has felt compelled to dispel the rumors. or concerns.
“Whatever performance level McLaren have today we will be a competitive racing team,” telling the BBC.
“That means we will be fighting for the world championship.
“The objective is to go to Australia and be the most competitive car there, not to come out of every single test at the top of the timesheets. Testing is about a disciplined approach to making the car go faster and you have to ignore the performance of the other teams.”
“Whereas our main competitors are finishing testing in two days we still have the ability to test next week in Jerez. When we get to Australia that will be the first measurement of everyone’s performance.
“We expect our car to go faster with every grand prix and we expect to maintain our pace to allow us to win the world championship.”
He is correct that testing is accomplishing many things really and it is hard to put too much weight on the pace displayed during testing by any team’ including Brawn GP.
However this reminds me of a quote:
“Your overconfidence is your weakness” which of course would prompt Ron to say; “your faith in your friends is yours”. Then I would say, “your feeble skills are no match for the RED side”. ;)
