McLaren's "focus has been on 2019 for a while"

Since the Spanish Grand Prix, McLaren have hardly made an upgrade on their 2018 car. This was a statement made by Fernando Alonso recently. Today, Gil de Ferran has backed up these comments and explains why it has been the case.

The simple reason is: because the focus has been on the 2019 car for some time. McLaren started the season much better than they will end it. Though Alonso is in a battle to stay inside the top 10. A feat which hasn't been seen for a while.

De Ferran explains how the upgrades failed to work on the McLaren which in turn led them to develop the 2019 car early.

"We needed some more time to understand the problems we encountered," De Ferran begins his explanation on Motorsport Week.

"Unfortunately, some of the updates we've made throughout the year did not give us the expected time savings and you need to analyze that to understand."

"For that reason, we have chosen to focus quickly on the development of the car for next season. In this way, hopefully, we can better fight the other teams in 2019 and we do not have the weaknesses that can be clearly seen this year on certain circuits."

In pre-season testing, McLaren said the 'real' car would be delayed until Spain. Well, we all know how that turned out. Will the British team sort it out over the summer?