Spanish Grand Prix: Mclaren team preview

Jenson Button putting the Mclaren through its paces.

Mclaren head into the Spanish Grand Prix as huge underdogs, and are hopeful of finishing in the points. Unlike other teams, the British outfit have planned massive upgrades for the cars.

They’ve had a terrible start to the season and will be hoping that they can reduce the gap between them and the leaders. Jenson Button has stepped up when necessary, but Sergio Perez is still coming to terms being in a ‘big’ team.

The Mexican has shown what he is capable of in glimpses this season, but might use the Spanish Grand Prix, a second home for him, to justify his choice of being selected by the Brits.

Jenson Button remains sceptical about the upgrades, but admits that the Spanish Grand Prix is like a beginning.

“The start of the European season in Spain always feels like a fresh start to the year. Suddenly, you’re back in Europe, the motorhomes and transporters are all lined up in the paddock, and it feels like a second home for everyone.

“It’s been difficult for the team to make consistent progress through the first four races, but I think returning to a circuit where we undertook two of the pre-season tests will give us a useful benchmark of our progress so far.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the importance of next weekend’s upgrades; but, as with every upgrade, they’re simply part of the series of continuous improvement that are made across the season. As always, there’ll be elements of it that work, elements that perhaps work in a different way to what we’d anticipated, and elements that don’t work, or perhaps require further work. That’s life in modern Formula 1.

“So I’m pragmatic about what we’ll discover next weekend. Of course, I’m hopeful that it’ll move us a step closer towards the destination.“

Sergio Perez, on the other hand, is looking forward to the experience of racing in Spain with his new team.

“I’m looking forward to having my first European race for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

“The Circuit de Catalunya is a place all grand prix drivers know well because we do a lot of miles there in the winter. It’ll be a good place to test the car as it’s a very demanding circuit aerodynamically. We have a lot of historic data from our testing there, and we’ll get a good read on our performance when we start testing next Friday.

“It’s quite a demanding circuit aerodynamically, too, so it should be a very useful weekend for us in terms of understanding the MP4-28 and the direction forwards that we choose to take.

“I hope that the introduction of two DRS zones at Barcelona will help improve the racing. We saw in both China and Bahrain that Formula 1 cars can race really closely if they are under the right conditions; Barcelona has always been a difficult circuit for overtaking, so I hope the new regulations will improve matters. It would be great for the thousands in the grandstands if there were some spectacular overtaking along the main straight.“