McLaren 'must' iron out imperfections

Although the title fight appears wide open, with Lewis Hamilton tied at the top of the points standings with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, Whitmarsh thinks McLaren have thrown away too many points this year.

And that is why he wants the team to work harder and 'sharpen' their focus on winning the championship from next weekend's German Grand Prix.

"We're leading the drivers' championship with Lewis and are third in the constructors' championship," said Whitmarsh in a team preview.

"And while we remain encouraged by the pace we've recently shown and the victories we've achieved, there's a feeling that we could still be doing more to consistently score strongly.

"Several opportunities for victory, most notably in Istanbul and Montreal, have slipped through our fingers; we've suffered a few penalties - which we took squarely on the chin - and, through no fault of his own, Heikki has finished out of the points on several occasions, either due to us being unable to provide him with a suitable car or through circumstances that were largely beyond his control.

"So as we head into the second half of the season, our primary objective must be to work harder to iron out these imperfections, to provide our drivers with race-winning machinery at every opportunity and to sharpen our focus on the world titles - both of which are still achievable for us."

McLaren will head to Hockenheim buoyed by Lewis Hamilton's victory at the British Grand Prix - although the British driver insists he is not getting complacent that his team have edged ahead of Ferrari.

"Pressure always exists because you need to win consistently," said Hamilton. "In Formula One, you're only as good as your last race and Silverstone already felt like an old memory by the time I was testing at Hockenheim on Tuesday.

"Generally, however, a race win briefly takes the load off everyone's shoulders because it allows you to push forward without looking back at the problems you may have faced in the previous race. But you can never get complacent and we'll be pushing hard again in Germany next week."

McLaren have introduced a number of developments on their car in recent weeks and, although the most visible upgrade on the MP4-23 is the anvil wing engine cover that was tried out in this week's Hockenheim test, Kovalainen is unsure if the team will race with it in Germany.

"The new top body engine cover has been designed to improve aero performance, particularly through high-speed corners - and we feel it had an advantage during the Hockenheim test," he said. "But it's still too early to say; maybe Hockenheim is not the best place to try this new wing and we need to see if it is affected by crosswinds.

"It was quite windy at the Hockenheim test, but we didn't seem to be too affected by the wind. It's definitely encouraging for the future."