McLaren admits lack of pace

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 Team Principal, Martin Whitmarsh, has admitted that the Woking-based outfit is struggling for pace in testing. Both Heikki Kovalainen and World Champion Lewis Hamilton were near the bottom of the timesheets this week at Barcelona.

Withmarsh said: "This week the car has run in Barcelona with an updated aerodynamic package, as we had always planned it would. A performance shortfall has been identified that we are now working hard to resolve.

"The MP4-24 is certainly not quick enough yet, and certainly not by our team's extremely high standards. It's a combination of factors: the Mercedes engine is strong, which we saw last year, so the car's performance shortfall is clearly chassis related," Withmarsh continued.

"Although many of our rivals are not attending next week's Jerez test, we aim to continue to develop the car and the result should be measurable on the stopwatch."

Earlier, Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Norbert Haug, already voiced his unhappiness with the new car: "We are definitely not where we want to be. We will continue our test programme next week at Jerez for another four days, but it will take time to improve.

"Obviously, we have a lack of downforce," Haug explained. "We are currently working hard to solve that problem. Basically, the drivers have said that the car feels good but we are definitely not fast enough and not competitive enough to aim for victories."