McLaren will continue to refine its pair of MP4-23s ahead of next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix as it attempts to keep pace with
Ferrari in the
Formula One world championship battle.
Although
Lewis Hamilton continues to lead the pack - having managed to increase his lead by a single point in each of the last two races despite not winning either -
Felipe Massa, in particular, has appeared to have the upper hand, being robbed of certain victory in Hungary when his engine blew three laps from home and then cruising to the win in Valencia last weekend.
Massa's retirement in Budapest and that of Ferrari team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen in Spain has underlined just how close the frontrunning teams are running the line between success and failure as they chase the crown, but McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh is confident that the Woking outfit will be able to withstand the pressure at the forthcoming high-speed tracks at Spa and Monza.
"The reality is that we have tremendous faith in our colleagues at Mercedes-Benz and feel comfortable with both our engine's performance and reliability," he said in the build-up to the Belgian race, "The recent engine failures suffered by Ferrari in Hungary and Valencia clearly demonstrate that even a homologated engine can break, so we take nothing for granted. There's always an element of risk whenever you come to two fast and demanding circuits, but we have the additional security of knowing both our drivers can each still suffer an engine failure without receiving a ten-place grid penalty."
While Ferrari has had to play its 'joker' in terms of the free engine replacement permitted to each driver this season, neither Hamilton or
Heikki Kovalainen has suffered in that regard in the twelve races so far and can afford to press on in the remaining rounds.
