McLaren look to Hockenheim to turn round their fading F1 season

At the start of the Formula One season McLaren's new car represented both the beauty and the beast. It was not only the best looking car on the circuit, eschewing the ugly nose jobs preferred by the other teams, it was also the fastest. It impressed in testing, and in the first two races, in Australia and Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button locked out the front of the grid in qualifying. Button won in Australia and was second in the third race in China; Hamilton was also brilliantly fast and came third in the first three races. Since then, though, they have been overtaken by Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus and, according to Button, are not as quick as Williams and Sauber. That is why Tuesday's post-race technical meeting following Sunday's disastrous British Grand Prix at Silverstone is now a crisis summit. Red Bull, who are 74 points ahead of fourth-placed McLaren, are closing in on their third constructors' title in as many years, which is beginning to look dangerously like an epoch in the making. The drivers' title looks likely to be fought out between the two Red Bulls and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso; McLaren are left to scrap among the midfield teams. They do not expect to win both titles every year. In fact they have won only one drivers' championship this century, while their last constructors' crown was in 1998. So the much lauded Ron Dennis, who handed over as team principal to Martin Whitmarsh early in 2009, also found it difficult. But, given their vast resources, there is an insistence on being competitive, in being among the leading two or three teams in the world. That is why they have to turn things round in Germany. Last year, after another disappointing Silverstone, Hamilton won at the Nürburgring and Button won the following race in Hungary. Whitmarsh has promised an upgrade for the next race at Hockenheim but this time it might be more difficult to change their fortunes, even though they have tightened up on their accident prone pit crew. While Red Bull and Ferrari appear to have come to terms with the neurotically sensitive tyres produced by Pirelli, McLaren are still guessing. Button, in particular, has difficulty in getting his front tyres to the right temperature. But there could be another problem. At the start of the year a number of experts, including the BBC's Gary Anderson, pointed out that their design was flawed. Anderson, a former technical director of Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar, said on Monday: "I said before the season that they had made a mistake in designing a car with a lower nose than all of their rivals. "I stick with what I said. The higher chassis [which their rivals have] gives you more opportunity for aerodynamic development. McLaren do not have the fastest car any more." And doesn't Button know it. He looked a dejected figure on Sunday night, when he said: "The problem is that the car doesn't feel bad, so it's amazing to think what the rest of the guys are driving around in. The car feels reasonable but then you see a car come past like you're standing still and you think, how good does their car feel – they must be on rails. "We are never going to say the championship is over, even when we are this far behind. With 11 races to go, we will never give up. It would not be fair to the team to give up. But getting seven points from the last six races is not really the most amazing feeling. "The negative is that as a team we haven't performed well enough. I don't think the top teams have any tricks. We are still struggling with tyre temperatures. We thought we had it right. We had such a great start to the year. It was what everyone said we had to do. We did that – and now it has dropped off." Hockenheim will be Hamilton's 100th F1 race. "Time flies by, I'm getting an old man," he joked. But beneath the humour is a serious, brilliant and ambitious driver, thinking about his future as his contract expires. How crucial is Germany, Whitmarsh was asked. "It's one 20th of the championship. Every race is one 20th of the season. No race is more important than another." Whitmarsh is brighter than that. Germany is crucial. For McLaren, for Hamilton, for Button. And for Whitmarsh.