US GP - McLaren Mercedes - PreviewFollowing Lewis Hamilton’s maiden win at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton,
Fernando Alonso and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes now relocate to Indianapolis for the 2007 United States Grand Prix.
Held at the renowned Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, the team arrives at the track still leading the Constructors’ title with a total of 88 points. Ferrari is the closest challenger with a score of 60 points. Hamilton and Alonso head the Drivers’ Championship with 48 and 40 points respectively.
Lewis Hamilton
"It still hasn’t really sunk in that I have won my first race, it was an amazing weekend for me and it is fantastic that we are racing again already this weekend. The Motor Speedway is another tough circuit on the cars, I hope we are as competitive, but until we get out on the circuit on Friday we can’t really predict how it is going to go. I am really excited to be racing at Indianapolis. It is such a legendary venue, you can’t escape the history here and I am looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere for the first time. The track has the unique characteristic of the banking, but from what I hear it doesn’t have a massive impact on the cars, but it will be pretty cool! To be going into race seven of the Championship in the position I am in is amazing; however it is still early days. This will be my seventh race and I am very much still learning. There are 11 more this season including Indy and that is a long way to go with a lot of hard work ahead. I have enjoyed the season so far, but am aware racing isn’t predicable and anything could happen at the next race."
Fernando Alonso"Canada was a tough and frustrating race for me, but at least I left Montreal with some points and am in a strong second position in the Championship, which is not won or lost in one race. I am in a good situation in the table, the car is great, it is definitely capable of winning races and I am looking forward to getting back out on track in America and hopefully having no safety cars. I have not had very good results in this race in the previous years, it was better last year than in 2005, so I am hoping it will improve again this year! It is always great to go racing at Indy, fans at Indy are fantastic, they are pretty serious about their motor racing and their passion means there is a great atmosphere. I hope we are able to go out there and put on a good race for them. Indy is another of the tracks that I want to win at, it is so historic and is a very important circuit in this sport, to have a trophy from there in my collection would be fantastic. There are opportunities to overtake at the Motor Speedway, the main one is probably if you slipstream another car on the start-finish straight, but you need to have a very fast straight line speed to make this work. This is why we have such a low level of downforce."
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren Mercedes CEO
"After a great weekend for Lewis, we now move to a definite highlight of the year for the sport, the United States Grand Prix. It is a very challenging race and we are not in the position to predict our performance relative to our key competitors. For Fernando, Lewis and the McLaren
Mercedes team to be going into race seven of season at the top of both Championships is a satisfying situation to be in, we are not resting on our laurels. The pace of work at the McLaren Technology Centre, Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines and in Stuttgart this week is as intense as before, if not more so. We are bringing developments on line for the United States Grand Prix as we work towards extending the performance gap. This is going to require a lot of hard and focused work, and we will face powerful competition from our rivals."
Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport VP
"The automobile market in the USA is the biggest one for Mercedes-Benz outside Germany; therefore, it is nice to arrive in Indianapolis as the leaders in both World Championships. At this traditional circuit, it is our target to continue the performance we have shown so far this season. We won three out of the six races so far, the last two ones in a row, we achieved ten out of 12 possible podium positions, and we are the only team to complete all 384 race laps and 1,800 kilometres with both cars and to score always points with both drivers. The track layout is challenging and the sector with 22 seconds of consecutive full throttle is particularly demanding for the engines. The task for the infield is exactly the opposite and to be fast you need a good compromise between top speed and good balance in corners. We are well prepared to match these requirements.”
Source McLaren Mercedes
