The McLaren car will 'have quite a few upgrades' at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, according to technical director Paddy Lowe.
McLaren have enjoyed mixed success in the opening two races of the 2012 season as the car has led the way during qualifying with a front row lockout in both Australia and Malaysia.
However, despite the dominance, McLaren only won in Malaysia and that was largely due to the conditions, which has resulted in the team's attempts to ensure they can take the qualifying pace all the way through the races. Looking ahead to the next race in Shanghai, Lowe told a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in: "We have quite a few upgrades for this event, on pretty much all sections of the car.
"So we're hoping for a reasonable step in performance.
"However, we expect that is only what we need to do to stay where we are, in terms of qualifying and race pace."
Lowe is anticipating that their rivals, such as Red Bull and Ferrari, will also be working hard to ensure they are more competitive in China. He added: "I would be surprised if our principal competitors aren't also coming with reasonable steps forward. So that's the name of the game.
"It's a relentless battle for in-season development, particularly amongst the top teams.
"It's started already and we'll have to play our part and see if we can maintain the qualifying lead we had at the first two races."
0 comments:
Post a Comment