McLaren vows to make cost cuts work

The team has been widely perceived to be critical of the recent overhaul introduced by the sport's governing body, the FIA. But McLaren's leading figures, team boss Ron Dennis and managing director Martin Whitmarsh, claimed that they were not, in principle, against cost-cutting measures, although they stopped short of fully supporting the changes.

Dennis told AUTOSPORT: "If these [new rules] are viewed to be beneficial for the sport and this puts a positive spin on the perception of F1, then whatever view we have should be expressed in a constructive way - such as through behind-the-scenes lobbying, to try to put forward a different view to vary people's opinions - and not in a destructive way."

The McLaren boss also believes that the rule changes will evolve in the coming weeks.

Whitmarsh added: "Regulations are not agreed for the start of the year. People say the devil is in the detail and I think some concepts have been put on the table and pushed through. If we can tune those to make them more acceptable to the sport and more appropriate we will try and do that. But we will try and do it in as constructive a manner as possible."

For the full story, check out this week's AUTOSPORT magazine, on sale Thursday.