McLaren hoping to surprise in Australia

With the fast approaching debut in race in Australia next week tension is rising. With a difficult testing season McLaren has been away from best performance but still team boss Martin Whitmarsh thinks that the team may have the capacity to "surprise a few people" in Albert Park. Still Whitmarsh admits that his team doesn’t arrive to Melbourne as favourites for the win.

"It's called testing for a reason - and testing MP4-26 beyond its limit has, in some ways, been highly instructive," said Whitmarsh in a team preview.

Whitmarsh states that the team has gathered a huge amount of useful data about the car, its handling characteristics and its management of the tyres, and that has been used for fine-tuning the MP4-26 for Melbourne with “some extremely tough targets.”

"So, do I think our testing pace is representative of the pace we'll show in Australia? No. Do I think we head into the weekend as race favourites? Unfortunately, no. But do I feel that we have the capacity to surprise a few people and be competitive? Very much so," added Whitmarsh.

The confidence and excitement about the start of the season is also shared by Lewis Hamilton that says: “We can't hide the fact that testing has been tougher than we expected: our test mileage hasn't been as high as that of our rivals, nor have we had the outright pace of the fastest cars.”

"Nevertheless, we know we go to Melbourne ready for battle: some teams are extremely well prepared but that can sometimes count for little in the unpredictable and somewhat chaotic opening races where it's equally vital just to take points home.”

"I strongly believe that, while our preparations haven't gone as smoothly as we'd have liked, I get the impression that we'll be arriving in Melbourne with everything finally meshing together – and that makes me really excited."

Having one in Australia for the last two seasons, Jenson Button is keen to admit that he would like to make it three-in-a-row.

"Albert Park has been good to me: I've won there for the past two seasons; it's a great circuit for racing, it always seems to create unpredictable races and, perhaps because it's habitually at the start of the season when a precise pecking order has yet to be established, we often see fast cars running out of sequence – and the excitement that that brings. With the added issue of multiple tyre stops, it could be a very exciting and unpredictable race weekend.”

"I'm regularly being asked if I can make it three wins in a row this year. On paper that might not look likely, but, seriously, who knows? I most definitely wouldn't rule it out."