McLaren says it's learned from pit error

McLaren is confident its pit wall will be more sharp in its decision-making process in Belgium this weekend after carrying out a thorough investigation into its Valencia pit-stop mix-up since Sunday.

The Woking-based squad lost the chance to challenge Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello for victory in the closing stages in Valencia after botching long-time race leader Lewis Hamilton’s crucial final pit stop when it failed to have fresh tyres ready for his arrival in the pit lane.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh later explained that the blunder came about because the team had made a late call to eek Hamilton’s fuel load out for one extra lap, but by the time it had told its driver of the decision he was already committed to the pit lane.

And while Whitmarsh insisted the delay had only cost Hamilton “two or three” seconds and made little difference to the outcome of the race, the team has nevertheless carried out what it calls a “forensic” investigation into what went wrong back at its Woking factory.

Asked in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ‘Phone-In’ to explain what the team had done to ensure there would be no repeat of the mistake, managing director Jonathan Neale said: “A lot.

“It was a very aggressive strategy call that one and we got it too late, not by much, and you saw the result of that.

“In the end that was not material to Rubens jumping us – that was always going to happen – but certainly we would have been able to put Lewis closer to Rubens if we had, either, executed the stop properly or had been able to go the extra lap – it was marginal.

“Of course, it’s important we don’t dwell on the past and we look forwards, but I have been through all of the data, I’ve replayed that particular piece of video footage of that stop I don’t know how many times, probably 100 or so, looking at every movement of who did what and who said what.

“So we have forensically taken it apart and looked at what we need to do.”

Neale also moved to dismiss any suggestion that it had been the team’s mechanics at fault for mistake, insisting it was purely the pit wall’s error.

He is confident, however, that the management and engineers on the pit wall will be more switched-on when making strategy calls during this weekend’s race.

“I have to say that, in defence of the garage, the garage are blameless,” he said.

“In this case there has been some unfair criticism of the guys who actually manage the tyres and work the cars – the crew did an excellent job but our decision making was slow and we compromised the pit stop.

“So what we need to do for this weekend is learn on that, look at our decision making, and everybody on the pit wall who has been through the after event analysis and debrief will be sharper next week.”

Source: ITV