Wurz on McLaren: 'It's all in the details...'
McLaren's new test driver Alex Wurz says that attention to detail is the reason the Woking-based squad has dominated Formula 1 in recent seasons
Former Benetton pedaller Wurz, who had his first run in an interim McLaren-Mercedes MP4-15 at Jerez yesterday (Tuesday) said: "Even before I sat in the car, I spent time with the [McLaren] people and I can see why this team is on top. They are very logical in the way they work, and they are in control in every single area.
"There is no trick to F1 - it is taking each detail, focusing on it and pushing it to the limit."
Wurz follows in the footsteps of Olivier Panis, who stepped down from Prost to take the McLaren test role, but secured a race seat with BAR for next season on the strength of his 2000 testing performances.
"Olivier did an extremely good job," said Wurz. "I don't think he could have done much better than go to BAR and I'm aiming for something similar.
"I am 100 per cent focused on going into the testing job and giving the team the maximum effort. I want to help them win the championship and I want to get closer to what makes F1 really tick - I think this is a better way of doing it than driving for a mid-grid team.
"This year was a tough season," he added, "especially the middle of it, but things calmed down towards the end of the year. I learned a lot, but that's all history and it's time to concentrate on the future."
Wurz concentrated on getting comfortable in the car on Tuesday, finishing the day some five seconds off team mate David Coulthard's best time, but will run two full days testing development parts for the 2001 MP4-16 today (Wednesday) and Thursday. The Austrian says that recent minor knee surgery will not effect his performance in the car.
"I had a little question mark about my knee," he said, "but there is no problem with it in the car. I had an accident on my mountain bike and had keyhole surgery. They have replaced a cruciate ligament with ligaments from the hamstring. The recovery was very quick, I am limping just a little, but I should be back to normal very soon."
To see more pictures from the Jerez F1 test, click into Autosport.com's race gallery HERE.
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