Sebastian Vettel had the measure of Lewis Hamilton in Australia © Sutton Images
McLaren is expecting to learn the full extent of Red Bull's apparent performance advantage at the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel won the opening race in Australia by over 20 seconds from Lewis Hamilton and took pole position by a commanding 0.8 seconds. The Red Bull was particularly fast through the higher speed corners in Australia and is expected to be well suited to the wide and sweeping Sepang circuit in Malaysia.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted McLaren's rivals might not have shown their full hands in Australia, but is confident the MP4-26 - which received an eleventh hour upgrade in Australia - would also be stronger.
"As with every season, we're pushing hard to bring developments to the car for every race," he said. "We don't think Melbourne showed us the best of our competitors' pace, so that only makes us more motivated to bring as much performance to the table as possible.
"On paper, it looks positive: we were pleased that our Melbourne upgrade worked as expected, and the car's performance around the high-speed elements of Albert Park suggests it will be able to cope around Sepang. Despite this, the reality is that there was a gap to pole position, and we finished second and not first. Our target is to close that gap and get Lewis and Jenson into a position where they can win."
Hamilton added: "Sepang is a circuit I really love. It's big, fast and wide with some really demanding high-speed corners where you can find a lot of time if you're really able to get the car working to its full extent. After the pace we showed in Melbourne, I think we can have another good race in Malaysia. Albert Park is a great track, but a circuit like Sepang is where the differences between the cars will start to become clearer."
Another key factor will be the hot temperatures which, when combined with the high-speed corners, will take their toll on the Pirelli tyres, resulting in higher levels of degradation. In Australia Hamilton was able to go longer into the race on his first set of tyres offering some hope for McLaren ahead of next weekend's race.
"Sepang is a demanding, high-speed circuit that is likely to showcase the performance of those cars with the best levels of grip and downforce, and which can best manage the tyres at what will be their hottest and toughest test so far," added Whitmarsh. "It goes without saying that Malaysia will be hot. It's not only a severe test of each car's cooling solutions, and with track temperatures expected to be between 20C and 30C higher than anything else we've seen this year, tyre management will also be crucial."
In Australia Hamilton was also hampered by a broken floor, which he is hoping will not be the case in Malaysia.
"The team have looked into the floor failure we experienced in Melbourne: it seems like the bond between the bib and the chassis was damaged so the damage looked quite bad by the end of the race. It was good to see that the car could withstand that sort of punishment, but, even so, I'm looking to give it an easier ride in Malaysia next week!"
Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)
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