McLaren searches for silver lining

Martin Whitmarsh is the man charged with turning McLaren's troubled fortunes around. Recently promoted to general manager, responsible for both the chassis and engine programmes, Whitmarsh admits that the team is getting it wrong, and that there are no excuses to be made. He calls the double engine failures at the European Grand Prix "indefensible" and outlines the plan to bounce back with the new MP4-19B.

McLaren has endured some tough weekends in 2004, but things couldn't get very much worse than they did at the Nurburgring. Kimi Raikkonen may have qualified fourth and briefly have run in second place, but his race pace was such that all he did was spoil the day for anyone else who might have had a realistic chance of pushing Michael Schumacher.

After his stop an early engine failure put him out of the equation completely, and not long afterwards David Coulthard had a similar smoky blow up, having already endured one in qualifying. It was a great shame for the Scot, whose weekend had already been compromised and was set to grab a helping of points with a well executed two-stop strategy.

Nurburgring is very much home ground for Mercedes and many of the team sponsors. While it wasn't quite as embarrassing as the same race in 1995 - when Mika Hakkinen and Mark Blundell trailed around at the back on a damp track - this was not a race that anyone involved wants to remember.

With his role now also encompassing the activities of Ilmor, Martin Whitmarsh is one of the key members of the McLaren organisation who has to take the heat for the team's recent poor form. To his credit Whitmarsh concedes that McLaren is getting it wrong, and that there are no excuses to be made.

"I think you've got to say with the level of performance we've got and the level of reliability, we're just not getting the job done," he says. "To have three failures at the Nurburgring, as close as you get to a home Grand Prix, is tough for the drivers and tough for the team. And understandably, it's tough for Mercedes Benz.

"If we want to take something from it, there was a slight step in performance from both the drivers and the team. Kimi did a good job, and he likes the circuit. You'd have to say that before his engine failure David was, if anything, more consistent than Kimi. It just always happens at the wrong time. That's the way it is in F1. When you're down, you really are down. David was I think going to qualify better than he ever had, and he did a good job in the first session. To have a failure on a slowing down lap is a bit unusual.

"Another positive is that they both made cracking starts, Kimi to get through to second, David to come from the back to ninth. He braked late and took the inside line, and I think he did a good job there. You've got to have every bit of help, but nonetheless, they were both great starts. They were both going to score some solid points, and that's what we needed."

A trio of engine failures in one weekend was a disaster for Mercedes and Ilmor. While Honda is also experiencing high profile problems, Ferrari, Renault, BMW and others are showing how the one-per-weekend rule should be tackled.

"To have a pair of engine failures is very disappointing. The good thing is that all three engine failures were of a similar nature. The data looked the same, the drivers heard the same, externally they look the same. So there's some consistency in that regard.

"It's stupid, indefensible, it should have happened. There's a suspicion about the pistons. There was perhaps a batch issue, as all the engines here had pistons from the same batch - maybe it was material, maybe it was manufacturing. The nature of the failures meant there are quite a lot of bits to look at!

"I'm hopeful that the analysis will be conclusive and consistent, and obviously we've already arranged for a different have happened, and we need to understand our process that allowed it to happen. But at least we have a solution. If we had three engine failures that were all different in their characteristics and cause, then it becomes very difficult to respond to that."

Kimi's brief second place was hardly a glorious one, although he had every right to get himself up there and keep the opposition behind. But Schumacher's spectacular escape accentuated the difference in pace between the World Champions and the team that until recently was Ferrari's main rival.

"We weren't at a level of performance that warrants being second in a Grand Prix at the moment. The tyres we had suffered after a few laps and went off. They would have come back a bit. David's run, which was obviously a two-stop strategy, demonstrated that they were capable of coming back even with a heavier fuel load.

"We're not there, we're not at the front in terms of performance, but however small, it was a step in the right direction. There are no secrets in F1. You don't go from one weekend to the next transforming your performance capability. We've still got a lot to do with the chassis and the engine."

All hopes are now riding on the MP4-19B, which tested for the first time this week. For the second year running McLaren is in a race against time to develop and refine a new package while the original is still being raced. It's a pretty desperate way to go about things.

Potentially the new car could complete the whole of the second half of the season, which means there's still time to salvage something from 2004. But deciding when to bring it into race service will not be the work of a moment, not least because there are huge logistical issues involved.

"Inevitably the speed with which you bring things through depends upon a risk benefit analysis. If it goes like a train, two seconds a lap quicker, and doesn't have any issues, then I'm sure there will be some haste with which we bring it through! If it's a small incremental improvement and you have some issues, then you defer it.

"We haven't made a decision in terms of race introduction, and it's certainly not out intention to have it for Canada and the USA. But France is realistic assuming that the benefits warrant the risks of pushing a car that early into the race programme."

David Coulthard suggested at the 'Ring that, at this stage, there is very little to lose by making the swap. Martin is inclined to agree.

"In a way. Again, the risk/benefit analysis, you have to bear in mind where you are. At the moment if you're nowhere in the championship, and you're not scoring enough points - or any points - then you can be slightly less risk averse..."