McLaren Targets Front Row Qualifying Performance in Spain

As Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes GP, teams who are looking to cut some tenths of a second per lap during the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, McLaren Mercedes will also debut some major updates on their MP4-25 that will hopefully take Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to the front row of the Barcelona race on Sunday.

McLaren's chief engineer Tim Goss confirmed the changes that will be implemented on the car this weekend, while also stressing the work McLaren has put into developing a faster car in qualifying. If McLaren scored 2 wins out of 4 races so far, they are yet to score a front row performance in qualifying in 2010.

“The ones (changes) you'll notice are the front wing and the rear wing, both of which are reasonably significant changes. On top of that there are then some fairly small, subtle changes to other changes to the car and as ever some of the subtlest changes are actually quite significant. Plus, finally if you look at the rear of the car, there is a small change to the floor just at the back,” said Goss.

However, the McLaren engineer admitted that his team will step into the unknown this weekend, as all teams have prepared significantly-improved packages for the race in Barcelona. While the aim is to finally score a front row finish in qualifying, there's really no telling on what will happen this weekend.

“I'd like to think that we can put a car on the front row in Barcelona,” added Goss.

“We've made a big step forward, but the other teams like Red Bull, Mercedes is making some significant changes, Ferrari have announced that they are going to bring their own drag reduction rear wing, so I think it's very difficult to make predictions for Barcelona.”