The Balancing Act: Interview with Martin Whitmarsh

Bearing in mind the team's lack of hard results last year, 2007 has been a pretty good season thus far for McLaren, with seven podium finishes from eight starts. After his sensational run, Lewis Hamilton leads the world championship, and McLaren are also ahead in the constructors' version.

But the fact remains that Ferrari are ahead by three victories to one, and it's anybody's guess how the season will unfold.

McLaren also find themselves in the perhaps unexpected position of juggling the interests of their two drivers - a rookie who is regarded as part of the family, and the established superstar who grew up elsewhere and whose desire for privacy extends to keeping his new colleagues at a respectful distance.

Ferrari are in a not dissimilar situation, and both teams face a fascinating balancing act as they try to do the best for both drivers while also beat the opposition - all the while knowing that BMW Sauber are close enough to take advantage of any errors.

As such, strategy is more important than ever, especially when it comes to deciding which of the two drivers gets the lighter fuel load and the shot at qualifying glory. In Spain, Fernando Alonso was three laps lighter than Lewis Hamilton, but that became a handicap at the start when the Spaniard went off and the Briton blasted through the gap.

In Monaco every extra lap will be crucial, both in terms of the weight in qualifying and conversely the advantage to be gained by stopping later. This year teams cannot ignore the fact that there might be a safety car period, and under the new rules if your two cars are just a lap apart on fuel - and there happens to be a caution period at the wrong time - you could get caught out and penalised.

Autosport.com spoke to McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh about the Spanish Grand Prix, the complex issue of calling pit strategy, and of course this weekend's event in Monaco.

Q: Firstly, what are your thoughts on Spain?

Whitmarsh: "Coming away from the fourth race with eight finishes, eight trophies [including winning constructor in Malaysia] and seven podiums, first and second in the drivers' and leading the constructors,' you can't feel too badly about it!

"But sadly I wasn't quite as sparkly as I should be about it. I was disappointed for Fernando, who wanted to win, and was capable of winning. I think there are various views on the Massa manoeuvre - I think it was quite hard and robust, but they both did what they had to do as professional racing drivers.

"What was impressive was the determination that Fernando had - you could see it on the television, and you could see it in the data. When a car goes off into the dust and kerbs, and is losing bits as it does so, ordinarily at the start of a race you'd lose anything up to eight places.

"The fact that he came out of it all still in fourth place, that needed quite a lot of assertion and bravery and commitment."

Q: How would you sum up Alonso's weekend?

"He qualified well, and fuel corrected he was in good shape in terms of his pace in qualifying. He was absolutely focused on winning, and he recovered from the first lap situation as strongly as he could possibly hope to.

"He'd lost a number of aerodynamic devices in the process, which inevitably affected the balance, and the sidepod was punctured, which didn't help. During the first stint he dealt well with it, given the circumstances.

"Due to a plain mistake on our part we put him onto primes for the second stint. He had a balance shift, and there was a balance shift between the tyres, so there was a view that perhaps given the condition of his car, it would work better on primes.

"It was an experiment that we conducted which didn't work out, because when he got back onto options at the end, he was a lot more comfortable."

Q: And he also took on a lot of fuel at that first stop.

Whitmarsh: "Yes, he had a heavy middle stint on the wrong tyre with a damaged car. When he looks back on it he feels disappointed in the outcome of it and disappointed with where he was at, but between us, we did the best job we could.

"Would it have been better to keep him on options? Yes. Would it have been better to have been more circumspect at the first corner? Yes, but I think he did it for all the right reasons. I think if he had got in front there, the whole race would have been different.

"That was pivotal moment in the race. As a team we weren't trying to lobby the stewards about the [Massa] situation, but if it was the other way round it would have been interesting to see what would have happened!"

Q: Once Kimi retired, Fernando was never going to finish higher than third ...

Whitmarsh: "No, at that point given where he was, and all three cars were cruising at the end as it was the end of the second engine life, no one was going to do any heroics.

"Could we have got the strategy better than we did? We probably could have done. In think we are very close to Ferrari in qualifying trim, and I think we are as quick as Ferrari in race trim. They might still have a little bit on us, but I think we made more progress in the four weeks between Bahrain and Spain than they did, and that's a step in the right direction."

Q: Lewis was three laps heavier than Fernando in qualifying. Isn't that an unusual margin?

Whitmarsh: "I suspect that Ferrari tried to do something very similar to us. Ferrari and ourselves are very conscious, I'm sure, of each other. I think BMW aren't that far behind, but we're going into each race thinking that we will be the front four cars.

"In Australia, Massa wasn't there, but by and large it's been the same four cars at the front each time. I think the strongest strategy was where Lewis was [lap 22], and where I suspect Kimi was.

"We suspected that Ferrari would try and put Massa at the front and they suspected we'd try and put Fernando there, then you start to second guess where you think the other one is going to go, if you think you're relatively matched on pace, which indeed we were.

"If Fernando had got three hundredths and stuck it on pole, I think he would have won the race."

Q: Who gets the lighter load is such a significant thing. What's the sort of thought process within the team?

Whitmarsh: "We look at both the drivers, where they're at, and how they're going to play their strategy. They happened to be on different loads, but they could be on the same load.

"There isn't a 'who gets the lighter load?' discussion. It's 'what are we going to do for each car?' The driver doesn't have too much influence on it. The strategy department gives an analysis, and then the race engineers are very influential, the tactician is influential, and the management - which is a euphemism for Ron [Dennis] and me - have a say.

"I have to say, Ron and I are the ones saying let's be racy, and the engineers are the ones saying an optimum two-stop here is lap 26. But it's all about getting up the front. That's the sort of debate that goes on."

Q: Lewis has tended to be heavier in qualifying. Is that the theme for the year?

Whitmarsh: "In fact in Bahrain Lewis was lighter, so we do mix it up. It depends how comfortable they feel, and how we think the driver will respond to certain situations.

"There's no doubt about, if Fernando had got out of the first corner in the lead, with the crowd behind him, I think he would have been quite quick and quite difficult to beat. That's why we felt we were right.

"Lewis is still a rookie, he is still learning, sometimes you've got to give him a less aggressive strategy. Sometimes we're going to put them on the same strategy, sometimes on a different strategy."

Q: After the first few races do you tend to assume that wherever Lewis qualifies, he has a good chance to getting a place or two at the start?

Whitmarsh: "Typically, if you look at the statistical analysis, then going lighter is higher risk. Sometimes it's the key to winning, but if you think about it, with Kimi and Fernando, who have got more pressure on them than Massa and Lewis, they've taken a slightly more conservative and less risky route. If you don't pull it off; ie if you lose places at the start, and you're light ...

"Fernando was behind Kimi for the first nine laps, and a gap of 2s would open, and then it would close up to half a second again. He wasn't able to get through, so was effectively losing the benefit of his light fuel load.

"There is a severe risk if you go light if you either make a mistake on your qualifying lap, or lose places and end up behind someone whose heavier. A more conservative strategy, if you just want to bang the points in, is to go slightly longer."

Q: Fernando made it clear in Spain that he felt his race was over after the first corner...

Whitmarsh: "He knew at that point coming out of that corner, or at least we strongly suspected, that he was a little bit lighter than Kimi. And he knew he was lighter than Lewis. That bit of data he did know, so he knew it would be difficult to recover from that.

"After a couple of laps he said, 'I can go quicker, but I can't get past Raikkonen at the moment'. The gap had opened up by the time Raikkonen dropped out. It was quite interesting, because you could sense that Lewis pushed a bit harder when he saw Raikkonen drop out! He knew he had to push that little bit harder over that period of time to stay ahead."

Q: What I'm getting at is that Fernando is sitting on the grid looking at Massa, and maybe you have Massa pegged at 18 laps or maybe 19, and Fernando's thinking 'I'm stopping on lap 19, so I've got to get past ...'

Whitmarsh: "Going light, instinct calls you to take the risk at the start. If he knew or believed that he had three or four laps longer than Massa, he'd say, 'I'm not going to take the risk, I'll sit behind him and be up his chuff when he pulls in. I'll put three quick laps in and I'll emerge after my stop in front'."

Q: Ferrari suggested that Kimi had made a mistake in Q3. Are you convinced that he was actually that much heavier than Massa?

Whitmarsh: "He might have been light as well. I think the mindset there is that Kimi is as quick as Massa, and he'll qualify right behind on a heavier fuel load. That might be doing a disservice to Massa there, because at the moment, Massa is doing a very good job.

"Reading Kimi's body language is not an easy thing, even for those of us that thought we knew him a little bit, but he doesn't look happy."

Q: But then people are obviously saying things about Alonso - not necessarily that he's not happy, but maybe he didn't quite anticipate the situation when he signed in November 2005.

Whitmarsh: "He probably wasn't quite anticipating the performance of his teammate!"

Q: What are your thoughts on Monaco?

Whitmarsh: "We've got some good momentum, and I think our car will work well in Monaco, both of our drivers will work well in Monaco, and both of them believe they are going to win in Monaco, which is what you want!

"I think we've got a reasonable set-up. We had a fantastic test at Paul Ricard on the Monaco simulation. Lewis was consistently a second to a second and a half quicker than anybody, and he was going like a train.

"Of course, you don't know, do you? Anyone can pull it out and anything can happen. But our drivers both believe they can win, to a stronger extent than they have done all year. We'll see. I'm looking forward to it."

Q: Is there a slight concern that Ferrari are going there with all those years of Bridgestone knowledge, even if the tyres are different?

Whitmarsh: "It can't hurt, but I don't think we want to make an issue out of it. You've just got to get on with it, haven't you? We won world championships with Bridgestone, we know them historically.

"But as for recent history, Ferrari have got a bit more. By default we've got a standard tyre at the moment, and if I had a choice I would rather it was my former tyre partner than the competition's, as simple as that! But I don't think at any stage we want to use that as an excuse."

Q: Lewis will be so pumped up, won't he?

"There's all that's happened in the last few months, and then there's the fact that Lewis has never lost in Monaco. In racing conditions, he's got more experience of Monaco than any other circuit he's going to visit. He's been fantastic there, never made a mistake, and just been awesome, in F3 and GP2."

Q: And Fernando has won there of course ...

"Yes. There's some soreness about the first corner in Spain, but the reality is it's good for F1. Going in on Sunday morning, there were four drivers who could have possibly won that race. Going into Monaco, maybe there's more.

"Kimi is not too bad there - last year he should have won that, that was one we threw away last year. I think Massa is sufficiently confident and on form as well. Lewis is pumped up to do it. And maybe there's a wild card. However, I'd put my money on my guys at the moment, but I'm a bit partisan!"

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- The Autosport.com Team

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