After seeing his drivers aggressively fight each other during the Bahrain Grand Prix, there were plenty of questions for McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh to answer.
Perez said after qualifying that he had set his car up to look after the rears better, was that a factor?MW: "For whatever reason Jenson had a bit more trouble with his tyres than Checo did and in fairness at the point they were fighting, he was quicker. Therefore to say to him don't fight Jenson, or at the same time to tell Jenson to yield and let his team-mate past, is not how I have done it, yet, and I don't think I am likely to start doing it anytime soon."
When did you realise it was going to be a four-stop race rather than a three-stop race for Jenson?MW: "Not until quite late - really it was when Jenson told us the tyres were going off. It was really when he was degging off - the thing was the tyres weren't wearing out, so he could have kept on going - but there was thermal degging and he would have lost that time. It was a painful decision but you pile in and make the best of it."
Will the upgrade in Barcelona give you a step forward?MW: "That is the plan obviously. We are not where we need to be and where people expect us to be. So we are working hard and hopefully we can make some improvements and fight for podiums and wins."
Sebastian Vettel now seems to have built up a head of steam, do you still believe you can get back into this year's title fight?MW: "Yeah, the truth is I just want to see us getting back on the podium and getting on the top step. I am thinking more about that and it is one step at a time. I didn't enjoy all of the race today, but I enjoyed quite a lot of it which is nice, but going racing when you don't think you can win is not something that I enjoy particularly. I want to get back to the point where we are arriving on a Thursday with the anticipation that 'we can win this weekend'. That is where we have to get to."
Is there a temptation to focus on 2014 given where you are now?MW: "There might be in the organisation, but that is one of my flaws - I don't want to go racing when I am not competitive. Maybe that is a character flaw. But I have made it clear since Australia that I do not even want to talk about 2014."
