Formula One news

Whitmarsh hoping for optimism in China

McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh is hoping his team will be in as upbeat a mood as possible at next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. The outfit has suffered one of its worst ever starts to a season, with disqualification from Australia followed by the dismissal of sporting director Dave Ryan, and a steward enquiry still pending.

"We have reasons to be both disappointed and optimistic about our performance in the opening races of the 2009 season," Whitmarsh said. "Disappointed because we do not yet possess the necessary technical package to enable us to fight with the leaders, but optimistic that our rate of progress is sufficiently rapid that we should be able to fight for points finishes on a regular basis."

Although politics unfortunately control the majority of Whitmarsh's arrangements at the moment he, as team principal for the first time this year, is focussing on the next race. "China will see a number of new components introduced to the MP4-24," he continued. "While we do not expect them to radically transform the car's potential, they should move us a little closer to the front than we were in the opening two races."

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