McLaren: No room for complacency

Although McLaren has not had the quickest car of the field, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have consolidated their position at the top of the standings thanks to strong races in Valencia and Britain.

The team, however, was forced to remove its rear blown diffuser at Silverstone, something that was a hit to its chances of matching Red Bull.

And despite its strong championship situation, Whitmarsh reckons the team has made it clear it is not ready to rest on its laurels.

"We've come off an extremely successful run of recent races, but we're nonetheless under no illusions that we need to bring further performance to the MP4-25 if we are to remain at the forefront of this championship battle," said Whitmarsh in a team preview.

"I think Silverstone showed that we were in no mood to be complacent - either in our aggressive push to put upgrades on the car or our decision to remove them and put our faith in an older iteration of the car, despite a lack of running compared with our rivals."

Whitmarsh said the team has run extensive testing of the floor in the factory, but a decision on whether it will be used will only be taken after Friday practice at Hockenheim.

"Of course, that final validation will only come at the circuit," he said. "So we're looking at undertaking a major test programme on Friday at Hockenheim. This will involve both drivers running back-to-back evaluations with the T2 and T3 floors.

"And, if these prove positive, we'll then look at the deployment of the new floor for the remainder of the race weekend. But that's a decision we'll only make after a thorough analysis of the inherent risks and benefits."

World champion Button said he is aiming to raise his game in qualifying, after two difficult sessions in Valencia and Silverstone.

"After two disappointments in qualifying at Valencia and Silverstone, my aim for this weekend must be to make life easier for myself on Saturday afternoon, so that I can maximise my performance on Sunday without needing to play catch-up during the race," he said.

"This will be another busy weekend for all of us as we spend Friday working through the changes we've made to optimise the blown diffuser. Hopefully, we'll have a positive test and will be able to see the benefits of the upgrades in the race for the first time. I'm looking forward to it."