McLaren not worried about title bid

With Red Bull Racing duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, plus Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, having edge clear in the title standings, McLaren needs a good response in Korea to get itself firmly back in contention.

When asked by AUTOSPORT whether he feared the momentum was slipping out of McLaren's title challenge, Whitmarsh said: "We don't spend time worrying about it. You spend time doing things about it. The fact is we have to make sure that we are reliable, make sure we keep improving the car and do our best in the next few races."

McLaren plans to bring a new front wing for the next race in Korea, plus it is hoping that it will finally get to race its revised rear wing that was tried out in practice in Japan.

"We will have a new front wing, plus hopefully the rear wing that didn't have enough track time here we will have there," said Whitmarsh. "There are a few things coming, so we will be throwing everything at the remaining three races. Until it can't be done it is still at play and we will keep pushing.

"We have got to just concentrate on what we can do; I cannot influence what the others do. We have to try and win the next few races and take it from there."

Whitmarsh was also confident that the gearbox issue that Hamilton's suffered in the Japanese Grand Prix would not force him to make another change for Korea.

"It was third gear and probably a dog - but it won't be a problem for the next race," he said. "We've taken the penalty for this weekend so we had a free gearbox change for the next race.

"Lewis had to run from fourth to seventh, which was obviously hampering him. But he was managing it really well and kept calm after a fairly difficult weekend.

"But we have seen how quickly Lewis can bounce back. He will bounce back strongly, and we will keep pushing."