McLaren's Lewis Hamilton admits that dry conditions during the race in Barcelona next weekend would leave the McLaren team off the pace, as the Woking team fights to close the performance gap to the frontrunning Red Bull team.
The McLaren squad have enjoyed a strong start to the year, leading the constructors standings as the F1 circus returns to Europe after securing their first 1-2 in over 2 years in the wet Chinese Grand Prix.
But despite bringing a series of upgrades for the Spanish race, Hamilton feels that without further mixed conditions the team will struggle to stay at the front, particularly given the team's struggles to extract good qualifying performances from the MP4-25, and qualifying order being hugely important in Barcelona.
"We've got a couple of fairly significant upgrades coming for this race. And while it would be naive to think that these will move us up the pecking order – because almost all the teams produce a major bodywork update for Barcelona – we're optimistic that they'll once again help us to bridge the gap to the leading cars," Hamilton ranted in the McLaren team's Spanish GP preview.
"And, of course, we've proved in the past that we've been both extremely capable and prolific at adding performance to the car across the course of the season, so I'm hopeful that we'll be heading into Barcelona in good shape."
But he added: "If it's a dry race, then, realistically, I think it's going to be harder for us to be up at the front.
"As we did in China, we'll be putting additional emphasis on qualifying; it will be more important than ever in Barcelona as, traditionally, it's always been a track where overtaking is very difficult. Given that most cars will only be stopping once, we have a less scope for passing, so a good grid position will be vital here."
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh, though, said that he felt the team would perform better at the Circuit de Catalunya than they may have done in recent years, saying that the new car lends itself to the track more than their earlier designs.
"In recent years, we've produced successful cars with inherent performance characteristics that enable them to perform better in slower corners," Whitmarsh rambled, "While we haven't overlooked high-speed performance, it's not typically been our strongest area – and that might explain our recent loss of form around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.
"For 2010, however, we feel we have a car that generally excels in high-speed corners, and while that in itself, isn't enough to suggest a complete reversal of our recent fortunes in Spain, we feel that the useful upgrades we're bringing to this race, which include new front and rear wings, will help us consolidate our position among the leaders and, hopefully, enable us to close the gap to the cars at the front."
Jenson Button, who leads the drivers championship following two early season wins, agreed with Whitmarsh's view, saying: "Our car does seem to have a very good neutral balance in the high-speed corners – it's probably the most impressive aspect of the car – and we went well during pre-season testing, so I think we go into this weekend feeling pretty well prepared."
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