Much more to come from blown floor concept – Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh has denied that McLaren’s efforts to emulate Red Bull’s blown exhaust concept have failed.

The British team took the innovations off the MP4-25 two weeks ago at Silverstone, and at Hockenheim Jenson Button was only able to get within seven tenths of the qualifying pace.

Mark Webber said on Saturday that the rear concept is overrated, delivering only “peanuts” in terms of time advantage.

“It’s not going to win or lose you a championship,” German reports quote the Australian as saying.

But McLaren boss Whitmarsh insists that the new package is functioning well, but not yet delivering its full potential.

“We have exploited only half or even a bit less of what is possible.  At every race from now on we will benefit,” Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport quote the Briton as saying.

Whitmarsh estimates that the 2010 world champion will drive for the team that manages to add 0.25 seconds per lap to his car at every remaining race this season.

McLaren’s F-duct and Red Bull’s rear end have been famously copied by their rivals, but Whitmarsh has revealed that some elements of Ferrari’s updated F10 are now of interest.

“We have seen a few things on their car that we can look at,” he said.

© RIF | GMM