Whitmarsh has "No Idea" Of Running Order

Martin Whitmarsh has agreed with comments made by 2013 world champion Sebastian Vettel, after he said this seasons winter tests were the “least conclusive ever.”

(c) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Whitmarsh was talking to Sky Sports F1 and revealed he has “no idea” of the possible running order as the teams set off travelling to Australia for the season opener.

12 days of testing in February and March proved to be useful for individual teams, but not so much for predictions of the pecking order. McLaren said they were pleased with the progress but do not know where they stand compared to the rest.

When asked if he knew where McLaren fit in, he said “the real answer is I have no idea – you go around the organisation and all the various engineers and they are all doing that analysis.”

He continued “I think we have seen in the past that testing is not a good guide of the real form and it is not a good guide because the conditions are very different. I think everyone was struggling with tyre graining and I rather fear and suspect they might be (the case) in the races.

“At the moment engineers are considering this to be a cold weather phenomenon and we will be okay at the races – but I have a feeling that in China, we are going to be talking about tyre graining and tyre degradation quite a lot, but we will see.”

Despite the lack of knowledge on a possible grid, Whitmarsh did say Mercedes have stepped up. “I think people have been doing different things, but unquestionably Mercedes have stepped up and you would expect the other usual suspects – McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull- will be reasonably competitive.

“But you never know – maybe we have been kidding ourselves and some have been sandbagging more than others and some have been trying more than others and you try to kid yourself depending on whether you are a pessimist or an optimist.

McLaren took a rather radical approach to 2013, in contrast to Ferrari and Red Bull’s evolutionary car designs. Talking about the change in direction, the 54-year-old said “what we have done is said ‘what are the limitations of that car and let’s redesign them fundamentally.’

“In doing that we will open the door to develop throughout the year but inevitably it gives you a challenge at the start to make the car as competitive as you want, but the race is going to last until November and we believe we have given ourselves the scope to continue developing it.”

He added “but, we will only know the answer to that in November and we look back on it and say ‘did we develop that car race after race as we intended?’ I hope we will, we believe we will but we won’t know until we have done it.”