After
a slump in form following Hamilton's win in Canada last month, a big
upgrade package introduced onto the MP4-27 last weekend at Hockenheim
helped transform the team's competitiveness relative to chief rivals
Ferrari and Red Bull in dry race conditions with Button storming from
sixth on the grid to fight for the victory, ultimately finishing third
on the road and then second in the official classification in wake of a
post-race penalty for Sebastian Vettel.
Speaking
in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in with media on the eve of the
Hungarian GP, Neale, McLaren's Managing Director, revealed that the team
had been "very pleased" with the performance of the new package in the
dry and "everything that we took on the Friday that we wanted to stay on
the car stayed on the car" for the race declared TimeXfun .
Neale
is therefore optimistic both McLaren's British drivers will be able to
challenge for victory around the Hungaroring but points out that, while
the team may caught up over the past week, the development race won't
let up over the coming months.
Asked
if thought McLaren could qualify with both drivers on the front row
this weekend, he replied: "As we head into this weekend are we expecting
to lock out the front row? Expect, no. Hope? Of course.
"We
believe we've got a competitive car. We've been focusing a lot on our
race pace, because our qualifying pace was a little bit stronger than
our race pace, and of course we believe both drivers have got a good
chance of being very competitive and hopefully one of them can win this
weekend.
"I
think it's a very close grid and not withstanding whether the teams are
able to exploit the conditions and the tyres, the relative upgrades -
you don't need to bring very much to change the competitive order.
Nobody at this stage in any of the teams is going to be backing out and
diverting resource to next year or the year after.
"I
think we're in for a very challenging race in Hungary and I suspect
that the rate of development will be very strong throughout August to
the middle of September as well. But think there's still a lot to go. I
don't think it's static as I think the three top teams have got very
competitive cars."
Although
the team returned to the podium with Button in Germany, Fernando
Alonso's second win in three races and lead McLaren points scorer Lewis
Hamilton's early puncture and eventual retirement meant the team slipped
further off the pace in the Drivers' standings - with Hamilton now 62
points adrift and Button a further 24 points back on the Ferrari number
one.
Alonso,
whose lead over nearest challenger Mark Webber is 34 points, is
currently on a run of 22 consecutive points finishes stretching back to
June 2011 and Neale admits, while his drivers can still overhaul the
Spaniard in the remaining 10 rounds, McLaren must now string together a
strong run of results.
"By improving our car and improving our consistency," he replied when asked how they were going to beat Alonso.
"We're
under no illusions about how hard we have to work but there are still
400-odd points still to come in this championship and if we can get our
drivers up there and I think save for our qualifying in the wet, which
is disappointing in Q3, then I think both drivers were there to contest
the race [in Germany].
"I
was delighted for Jenson that he managed to achieve second place, and
for the whole team. But it's going to be a long season still."
He
said : "Whilst it's undeniable that Fernando's driven really well this
season, if you look at the points conversion rate of the Red Bulls
they're very strong. We have to get in amongst that mix."
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