McLaren denies lying to Hamilton

ABOUT THE WHEEL TO WHEEL CONTROVERSY

LONDON – McLaren team leader, Martin Whitmarsh, on Tuesday (08/06/2010), said that the incident between Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in the Turkish Grand Prix is due to communication errors.

This things revealed by Whitmarsh ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. In the Turkish GP, Hamilton came out as champions. "Only moments after the (Lewis) were told would not to be passed Jenson, Jenson preceded it," said Whitmarsh. "Phil (Prew) give an opinion, but his opinion is wrong," he continued.

The incident happened when McLaren team lead in the first and second place in Istanbul after the two Red Bull teams drivers experienced incidents of collisions. The publication of McLaren’s conversation with the drivers will reignite the tension between the team’s two drivers.

That’s when Button and Hamilton were ordered to conserve fuel so that they can enter the finish line. Hamilton, who was leading was told: "Lewis, we need you to save fuel. Both cars are doing the same." He replied that Button was "closing in on me, you guys … if I back off, is Jenson going to pass me or not?" He was clearly told "No, Lewis. No."

"Lewis was told that Jenson will not precede him," said Whitmarsh.
But soon after Button did overtake but was unable to hold on to his lead for more than a corner as Hamilton roared back past him and went on to take the victory. "I was slowing down to keep that target and all of a sudden Jenson was right up my tail," Hamilton said afterwards. "He just appeared from nowhere and he was up my tail and there was nothing I could do."

"I think Jenson saw the opportunity and the past (Hamilton). Lewis certainly did not want to give up so easily and try to make sure he stays in front," he said again.

Martin Whitmarsh played down the incident and said that Hamilton’s engineer Phil Prew was simply offering an opinion on whether Button would try to overtake, not relaying a team order.

"Shortly after he [Hamilton] was told that Jenson wouldn’t overtake him, Jenson did overtake him," Whitmarsh told the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Phone-In. "Phil gave an opinion but it turned out his opinion was wrong. It’s as simple as that. They are racing drivers. They both had a challenge in that race from the outset, because the race was a bit quicker than expected both for the Red Bulls and for the McLarens, so we were consuming more fuel than [we expected], so we had to find ways to save fuel. They were being told to look after fuel, as a consequence of that Phil Prew had the opinion that Jenson wouldn’t overtake."

Whitmarsh added that Button had simply taken advantage of Hamilton backing off, as he would expect a racing driver to do.

"It wasn’t expected that Lewis would lift as much as he did in turn eight," Whitmarsh said. "For Jenson, who is a racing driver, when he saw quite a big lift in turn eight he thought it was his opportunity and subsequently made the pass."

Button subsequently claimed that he was told to conserve fuel but not set a target lap-time to achieve.

"It was tricky in those closing laps, because we knew we were pretty marginal on fuel, but the team lets us race and that’s exactly what we did," he said. However, that contradicted comments from other McLaren staff.

About this matter, Hamilton said that "The communication wasn’t clear for me,". "When they suggested ‘save this much fuel’ it was not easy unless I went ridiculously slowly. I tried to reach that target and in doing so Jenson all of a sudden appeared from nowhere."

However, he acknowledged that McLaren had not ordered him to stop racing.

"I had a great battle with him, and was happy to get past because it was quite a surprise," he added. "We’re allowed to race out there, but we have to be sensible. At the end of the day we’re a team: we both want to win the constructors’ title and we both want to win the drivers’ title. But we’re not stupid. I wouldn’t do anything dangerous to touch Jenson – and vice versa – and that’s the great thing about racing each other. "

Button confirmed that he had also been asked to save fuel before the battle and said his situation became even more critical afterwards.

"We were then both told to conserve fuel – although I’d already been conserving fuel for about 30 laps at that point actually – and we never imagined the pace of the race would be so fast," he said. "At the end, I had a run on Lewis out of Turn Eight. I don’t know why he was a bit slow, but I got a good run into Turn 12 and managed to get past him. We had a good little battle and we were wheel-to-wheel for three corners, but it positioned me wrong for the final corner, I got a poor exit and he was able to get back past me along the pits straight and on the inside into Turn One. After that, I was told to save even more fuel because I was pretty close to critical. It was a tough battle, but we didn’t touch and we still finished first and second, so that’s how you do it."