McLaren admits main focus is now wins, not championship

With the Woking team now 101 points behind constructors' championship leader Red Bull with 129 available before the end of the campaign, and Ferrari ahead of it in second place, McLaren's title hopes appear all but dead.

It is also drifting out of contention in the drivers' championship race. Lewis Hamilton's only hope is to win the next three events and count on Sebastian Vettel not scoring again, while Jenson Button is now too far behind to become champion.

Speaking in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes teleconference, Lowe said the team could now forget about championship mathematics and just try to win every race and see where it ends up.

"We'll still go out to try and win all of the last three races," he promised.

"Realistically the championship is now very difficult, but of course we won't give up yet.

"And the best way of not giving up is to say we'll keep trying to win races and get both our guys on the podium.

"If it pops out at the end that's we've won the championship because we've achieved that [three wins] and others have had problems, that will be fantastic."

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh said earlier this week that McLaren's drift out of championship contention made it all the more determined to end 2012 in style.

"We have underperformed in the couple of races coming [to India], so the motivation is very high," he said.

"You can sense it in Lewis, you can sense it is everyone in the team. We want to go out and win some more races before the end of this year. That is what we will focus on."