Martin Whitmarsh: “We should have gone away from here with a one-two”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says he’s delighted with the outcome of the Monza weekend, with only Jenson Button’s retirement spoiling the party after Lewis Hamilton’s victory.

“It was a brilliant weekend from both of them,” said Whitmarsh. “The result wasn’t brilliant for Jenson, but they both did a great job in qualifying, they were very strong, and neither put a foot wrong in practice, in qualifying, or in the race.

“For Lewis the right result and the right reward, for Jenson obviously a clear disappointment, and a disappointment for the team of course. We should have gone away from here with a one-two.

“We’re second in both championships, there’s a real championship fight on now, and that’s great. If we’d had the second place from Jenson then we’d be right up there, very, close to the lead of the constructors’. That’s disappointing, but on balance we’ll enjoy a win in the Italian GP.”

Regarding Button’s retirement, he said: “There’s fuel in there, but it just wasn’t coming out and being delivered to the engine. Fuel systems are very complex, they’ve got a whole range of baffles, pumps and weirs and all sorts of complexity. Something within there went wrong so that we weren’t collecting the fuel and maintaining fuel pressure to the engine. It could be a whole multitude of things.”

Meanwhile Whitmarsh says he expects to resume talks with Lewis Hamilton’s management company about a deal for next year in the coming days. He had stressed throughout the Italian GP weekend that the focus was on the race.

“As you probably know, we deal with management companies now, not directly with drivers, that’s the way of the world. We’ll be – I’m sure – having those conversations very quickly. I imagine we’ll have some conversations before Singapore.”

Asked if he was aware before this week’s media frenzy that Hamilton’s management had talked to Mercedes, he said: “I’m aware of quite a lot of things. It’s a small paddock, and they’ve got to be seen doing their due diligence, as you can imagine. I’m not surprised. I have some knowledge in fact of what’s been going on.”

Whitmarsh insisted that the team didn’t have an alternative plan, should it not conclude a deal with Lewis.

“I haven’t given a Plan B any thought. I want Lewis to stay – we want Lewis to stay if he wants to stay. You have a number of priorities when you’re trying to win a championship, and you divide your time, energy, focus, on those things.

“One of them is of course making the car better, faster, one of them is dealing with all the operational issues and making sure you don’t make mistakes, and the other is dealing with your own drivers. Rightly or wrongly I haven’t spent a lot of energy on that subject.”