Whitmarsh: The joke(r) won't be on Lewis

Thursday 23rd October 2008

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh is confident Lewis Hamilton's title quest won't be derailed to reliability issues but admits McLaren face a conundrum in the title fights.

McLaren head into the final race of the season with both Championship titles within their reach and the Hamilton the favourite to the take the Drivers'.

But while his main rival Felipe Massa, who is seven points behind him in the title fight, will be starting the Brazilian race with a fresh engine, Hamilton's will be starting it's second race.

"We are keenly aware that the World Championship could be won or lost by a mechanical failure. As a result, we are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to minimise this possibility," said Whitmarsh.

"For example, that meant consciously turning down Lewis's engine on the run to the flag in China in order to give him plenty of engine life for Brazil."

And even though the Brit hasn't used his 'joker' engine change this season, under the regulations it may not be played in Brazil. This means should Hamilton's engine fail, he will be subjected to a ten grid-slot penalty.

Whitmarsh, however, is confident Hamilton's Mercedes engine won't be a problem at Interlagos.

"We don't foresee this being an issue," he said. "Lewis's engine will be on its second race in Sao Paulo while Heikki (Kovalainen) will use a brand new V8, so we can balance the two approaches to engine life.

"In terms of gearbox life, Lewis' will be on race three while Heikki will start the weekend with a new 'box - but the level of reliability inherent in the gearbox means we anticipate fewer problems in this area."

Heading to Brazil, McLaren find themselves caught between two Championships, the Drivers' and the Constructors'.

While a conservative approach would be best to ensure Hamilton bags the Drivers' crown, given that he only needs to finish fifth to achieve that, the team needs to attack if they hope to wrestle the Constructors' title away from Ferrari.

"We can afford to be more conservative than normal in our approach to Lewis' race, but we are still pushing to win the Constructors' Championship and it would be wrong of us as a team to overlook this fact." he added.

"There are 18 points available in Brazil and there's no reason why we can't take forward the pace and form we showed in China to achieve a one-two in Brazil.

"As a result, we do have a number of minor aerodynamic upgrades in the pipeline that we are evaluating for inclusion on our Brazil-spec car.

"As with every race this season, we have brought something to the car - even if it has only been generating a few extra hundredths' of lap time - and it would be wrong of us to close down that option for Interlagos."

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