Formula One news
First win for team principal Whitmarsh
27 July 2009McLaren's Hungarian Grand Prix victory on Sunday was the first for the team since Martin Whitmarsh become team principal at the start of the 2009 season. Having taken over from Ron Dennis and experiencing a highly turbulent patch early on in the year, the Englishman is delighted with Lewis Hamilton's success.
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| McLaren's victory shirts were dusted off after a 9 month absence |
With the reigning Champion clinching his first win of the year before heading into the summer break, Whitmarsh represented McLaren on the winner's podium after a season including such issues as 'liegate' and the subsequent, regrettable sacking of team manager Dave Ryan who, ironically, collected the Constructors' trophy for McLaren's last race win in Shanghai last season.
"Even as recently as four weeks ago, I don't think many people would have believed you if you'd told them that we'd win the Hungarian Grand Prix in dominant fashion, but that's exactly what we did today," Whitmarsh said after Hamilton's crushing defeat of the opposition. "The fact that we did just that is a fantastic testimony to what can only be described as a superhuman team effort. Yes, 2009 has been a very hard year for us, but no-one at Woking, Brixworth or Stuttgart ever gave up; we all kept pulling together, we all kept our spirits up and, above all, we all kept working. I'm immensely proud of every single one of them."
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| McLaren are the first non-Brawn or Red Bull winners this season |
The win was the team's third consecutive triumph in Budapest and, having won in 2007 as well, Hamilton brings an end to a seven-year run of different winners at the Hungarian Grand Prix. "Lewis, who has also never stopped pushing all year, was simply magnificent, there's no other word," his team principal continued. "He was in the groove all afternoon, he delivered breathtaking speed where it mattered and he controlled the race like the winner he is.
"So, going forward, what can I say? We had the strongest car at the Hungaroring and, although it's an idiosyncratic circuit, we're confident that we'll have a reasonable package for Valencia, too. But motor racing is an unpredictable business and the only thing you can bet your house on is that we'll never stop working. More than that, we'll grow stronger as a result of the difficulties we've faced: we've learned lessons this year and for next season we're aiming to build a car that's capable of challenging for the World Championship from the start of the season, not halfway through it!"
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