Whitmarsh: The Red Bulls are just quicker…

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh is optimistic about the team’s prospects for Sunday in Spain and the rest of the year, despite the crushing display in qualifying by Red Bull Racing.

Whitmarsh remains confident that the team can progress and that his drivers will be able to pull something out of the bag when chances arise in the coming months.

“The Red Bulls are just quicker, they’ve done a good job,” says McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh. “We’ve made some progress, I think all the teams have. We’ve got as long season ahead of us. I think we’ve got two great drivers. They got the best out of the package that we made available to them today, and we were aiming frankly as the weekend wore on for the second row. We just about achieved that, not quite.

“We know they’ve got some vulnerabilities, we’ve got two great racers, and we’ve certainly won races this year from further back on the grid. It’s how it is. We know we’re working hard to develop the car, we’ve got some bits we need to get on the car as quick as we can, but the cars – all of them – will continue to improve during the course of the year.

“We’ve demonstrated that we can improve our car at a good pace, we’ve got to edge up on that and make sure that we’re working harder and faster than certainly Red Bull. I think by comparison to the other teams we’re quite respectable. But the Red Bull at the moment is the car that everyone has got to beat.

“I think they are in a strong position. We’ve got a race on tomorrow. I think we’re in a good position on the grid, not on the front row, and we’ve got two very quick cars in front. We’ve been in a lot worse positions and come out with some good results. We’ll see what happens tomorrow…”

As expected, the RB6’s pace in fast corners is a huge boost in Spain.

“I think there were some medium/high speed corners where clearly Red Bull could get on the throttle very strongly and very early, and that gives the drivers a pretty good advantage.

“I think this is a tough circuit, it’s one where you’d expect an aerodynamic advantage to pay real dividends. One would imagine therefore that we would be closer elsewhere. The fact is we’ve got to improve our car, and make sure that we become as competitive as we can.”