Axe reports made Nurburgring win sweet – Whitmarsh

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has admitted Sunday’s victory was extra sweet off the back of reports his job was on the line.

Before Lewis Hamilton won in Germany, the team had a disappointing and mistake-strewn home race at Silverstone, prompting Whitmarsh to give an unusual six-minute monologue to the international press.

Tom Cary wrote in the Telegraph that “if a football manager had done likewise, it would have been the last press conference he gave for that club”.

But Whitmarsh insists that although he didn’t pay “too much attention” to the speculation, Hamilton’s win at the Nurburgring tasted particularly sweet.

“If I said it didn’t I’d be lying,” he smiled.

He added that journalists had misunderstood him “being honest about where we are and what we have got to do” prior to the Nurburgring.

“I was very honest at Silverstone and said that things were not going well and some interpreted it to be my job in danger,” Whitmarsh is quoted by the Spanish El Pais newspaper.

“I don’t think anyone in the paddock who is minimally intelligent really believed that was so.  When you’re at the head of one of the strongest teams you do have a lot of pressure on you.

“But the pressure I put on myself is much stronger than the garbage that’s in the press,” he added.

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