{"id":4605,"date":"2010-04-18T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2010-04-18T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2010-04-18T09:56:56","modified_gmt":"2010-04-18T13:56:56","slug":"mclaren-drivers-free-to-race-whitmarsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/mclaren-drivers-free-to-race-whitmarsh\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren drivers free to race – Whitmarsh"},"content":{"rendered":"
Unlike Red Bull and perhaps also Ferrari, McLaren’s two drivers are free to race when running first and second.<\/span><\/h5>\n

<\/p>\n

Red Bull’s Christian Horner admitted in Shanghai that when his drivers are dominating, the actual wheel-to-wheel racing ends at the first corner.<\/p>\n

And although Felipe Massa denies it, it is rumoured that a similar policy is in place at Ferrari.<\/p>\n

But towards the end of Sunday’s Chinese grand prix, it appeared that race leader Jenson Button and teammate Lewis Hamilton were still challenging one another for the victory.<\/p>\n

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh confirmed: “It was a very long race for us.\u00a0 In the end, we allowed them to race each other freely, which was a bit nerve-wracking.<\/p>\n

“Would I have been happier if they had held station to the end?\u00a0 Of course, as I would now have a few less grey hairs,” he is quoted as saying in the German press.<\/p>\n

“But it was exciting racing from the first lap to the last, and good for the show,” added Whitmarsh.\u00a0 “That’s the way it should be.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali played down suggestions Fernando Alonso’s overtaking of Felipe Massa in the pitlane entry – leaving the Brazilian momentarily on the grass – will compromise the harmony within the team.<\/p>\n

Massa told reporters that they should “ask Charlie, not me” about the incident, referring to the race director and adjudicator Charlie Whiting.<\/p>\n

But Domenicali said: “I think it was just a racing incident and there is absolutely no problem between the two drivers: when you are always racing to win, you can have moments like this.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF|GMM<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike Red Bull and perhaps also Ferrari, McLaren’s two drivers are free to race when running first and second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[810,1275,1270,1221,5262,5261,5340,153,154,5284,1239,5368,1193],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4606,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions\/4606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}