McLaren will continue to develop

Despite Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel taking the Formula One title in 2012.

And Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso being the German’s largest threat throughout the season, it was McLaren that arguably boasted the fastest and best car last season.

With very few regulation changes some teams have opted for an evolutionary approach to this season and that includes Red Bull.

But it was not the stance taken by McLaren, to the naked eye the McLaren doesn’t look a whole lot different to last years challenger, however MP4-28 is a brand new car, which gives McLaren a better car to develop throughout the season.

?Clearly we?ve taken some risks in changing the car from last year, We finished the 2012 season with undoubtedly the quickest car and it would have been very easy to have continued to develop that car – we?d have made it quicker still for the start of this year. McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in as quoted by formula1.com.

?Yet we?ve made a lot of changes to the overall package and we?ve done so in the belief that you have to be competitive over 19 races, and you?ve got to be able to develop it. We?ve given ourselves a platform that is new to ensure we?ve got a development opportunity over the course of the season.?

During 2012 the main reason behind Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button falling behind in the title picture was the lack of reliability.

En-route to scoring 190 World Championship points, Hamilton finished outside of the top ten on six occasion, with five of those retirements.

Button finished two points behind Hamilton again finishing outside of the top ten on six occasions with two retirements.

While reliability in 2013 obviously remains a concern, Whitmarsh insists the team will not get bogged down in it and will continue to develop a quick car.

‘We’ve been working hard with Mercedes-Benz on some of the issues we saw last year, and we’ve been working internally as well.

‘We are constantly vigilant but we must not become so obsessed by the pursuit of reliability that we don’t change the car to improve it.’

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