McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has insisted that their rival Red Bull Racing squad are catchable in time for the start of next season, despite the team's complete domination of the 2011 Formula One season.
Red Bull wrapped up comfortable back-to-back drivers and constructors titles in 2011 with Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Newey's RB7 design, winning 12 of the 19 races.
McLaren managed six wins between Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button during the year, but finished in a well-beaten second place in the standings, over 150 points behind the caffeinated squad.
But despite expectations of another Red Bull-led title fight in 2012, Whitmarsh believes that his team can close the performance gap to their rivals with their new car.
He cited McLaren's run of title-less seasons after their back-to-back successes in 1998 and 1999, also with Newey-designed machines, as an example of how one team's domination can be ended.
"They [Red Bull] have done a very good job in terms of performance and reliability, but it can change," Whitmarsh was quoted as saying by the Autosport website this week.
"We have been there. We have had back-to-back world championships and then lost form, so we have to attack and go for it."
He also suggested that the key to McLaren's chances of success would be to hit the ground running with their new car, admitting that the team's unreliable and slow pre-season in 2011 hurt their chances of competing from the start.
"I think we had a shocking winter, probably one of the worst winters we have had," he admitted regarding the troubled testing season the team endured.
"We were nowhere near competitive and had not done a race distance before we finished the Australian GP."
He went on: "That is not how you should start a season. I think we have taken some decisions based on what happened, and hopefully taken some learning from that.
"We were taking some non-productive risks last year, and although it is easy for me to step back, I got reasonably involved at the end of it.
"But we have some really clever creative people. If I go around and say 'don't take risks', I would be stifling to people who are much cleverer than me and more inventive."
McLaren have now gone thirteen seasons without winning a constructors championship, while Lewis Hamilton's title in 2008 is their only drivers success since Mika Hakkinen's back-to-back crowns in 1998 and 1999.
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