McLaren will introduce its last major upgrade package of the season ahead of next week’s Singapore Grand Prix, team principal Martin Whitmarsh confirms.
The Woking squad found themselves entrenched in a midfield battle at the start of the season after going the wrong way with the development of the MP4-24 in pre-season testing.
The team have managed to close the gap to the frontrunners in the second half of the season with Lewis Hamilton clinching McLaren’s first victory of 2009 in Hungary, and then taking back-to-back pole positions in Valencia and Spa.
Heikki Kovalainen reckons the team team have “hit the sweet spot” going into Singapore and both he and Lewis Hamilton are targeting victory once again thanks to a raft of upgrades to the MP4-24.
“Our pace in recent grands prix increasingly shows that we have developed MP4-24 into a pretty decent all-round competitor and we remain confident for the Singapore Grand Prix,” confirmed McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.
“For this race, we are introducing our last major upgrade package of the season before fully devoting our efforts and resources towards next year s car.”
Heikki Kovalainen added: “We really seem to have discovered the sweet-spot of this year s car. I ve had points finished in every race since the Nurburgring, and we ve got some interesting new upgrades in the system that are planned for the Singapore race.”
“Singapore is the sort of circuit that should suit our package there are lots of slower corners and we ll be able to use KERS to our advantage.”
Lewis Hamilton meanwhile will be hoping to get the measure of the Brawn drivers after struggling to match their race pace in Monza and then spinning out on the final lap hunting them down.
“I know I m out of the title hunt and I want to attack these last four races, pushing for as many victories as I can,” he said.
