< Continued from page 1

Jonathan Neale:

On how the racing team is preparing for Jenson's arrival:

We were very impressed by his forceful race at Interlagos – as we were with Lewis’s fighting drive at Monza – and we know that Jenson is fully capable of learning very quickly, taking things onboard and absorbing information fast. In fact, we are looking forward to that hunger – it will be about how we prioritize his arrival in January to take best advantage of that desire to learn and improve.

He’s a very smart guy, and all our engineers are tremendously excited about working with two world champions next year – they’ll both devour hard work. They’re a real asset for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but, more importantly, I also think they are an extremely exciting prospect for every Formula 1 fan.

On whether next year's rules changes favor one of the drivers:

We’re lucky in that Lewis and Jenson both have fairly neutral driving styles – as does Pedro – so it’s unlikely to be a problem for us next year. Without the variables of fuel-load and fuel-effect, people have suggested that tire degradation will be the next most important performance-limiting factor during a race, but we don’t think that’s likely to be the case. If you look at previous examples of a guy who’s kind to his tires, and a guy who isn’t, it’s rare for the guy who pushes his tires to slip backwards in a race. I think what you see is that a driver’s speed comes from a broad range of variables – and it’s invariably the characteristics of the car that create a degradation issue, rather than the drivers.

On whether he thinks Jenson will make a quick integration into the team alongside Lewis:

I’m absolutely convinced that they’ll be a fantastic and competitive partnership.

The reality is that they’ll both bring different skill-sets to the table, and from January onwards we’ll be able to very rapidly bring their wealth of knowledge and experience to bear on a number of issues – particularly during pre-season testing. In some ways, it multiplies our opportunities in a Grand Prix too: there could well be tracks where Jenson’s skill-set is better-suited to the challenge, and equally, tracks where Lewis could excel. In the past, Jenson has demonstrated considerable talent at high-speed circuits, and we’re looking forward to building that into our arsenal. As long as we provide both drivers with equal opportunities and equal machinery – something we’ve always done at this team – then we hope they’ll be competitive everywhere!

Paddy Lowe

On whether Jenson’s relatively late confirmation at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has an impact on the design and development of MP4-25:

It shouldn’t have any significant impact, no. Although Jenson is a little taller than Lewis, we’ve used photographs to work out some rough measurements and we’re happy that Jenson will comfortably fit in the car.

On whether because the 2010 car has already been designed it will favor one driver over the other:

Not at all. In fact, the opposite is true: you tend to design a racing car to be as neutral as possible. The only way a car is specifically designed for a driver is ergonomically, and, like I say, we’re confident that won’t be a problem for Jenson. You’re trying to provide the driver with the broadest possible performance plateau upon which he can improvise to best suit his style. You’d be surprised, too, at how drivers’ different approaches very often culminate in a similar laptime, so, in that respect, we’re confident that our drivers will be a good match. Besides, you usually find that the competitive instinct takes over: when you make a Formula 1 car faster, it invariably works for both drivers. We only engineer for performance – not for individuality!

On how confident he is that the car will be competitive:

It’s still too early to be able to say with any confidence how competitive we’ll be. All we can say with any certainty is that we’ve approached this year’s car more aggressively than we perhaps have in the past. We’ve used the knowledge we gained from heavily developing MP4-24 to stand us in good stead with the 25. We feel we’re making very good progress, but, equally, we know there are some very capable teams out there too.