Is the McLaren feeling too sensitive?

Sky Sports F1's Mark Hughes on the sudden slump in the MP4-27's performance and whether the team are suffering for seeking perfection from this season's car...

Throughout much of McLaren's 2012 run of operational difficulties - refuelling errors and pit-stop calamities - it could at least console itself with the inherent pace of its car. But at Silverstone, a track that had appeared tailor-made for the car's strengths, even that was brought into question. Drilling into events of the weekend suggests that both the recent operational problems and a car that seems over-sensitive to track conditions, might both be the result of over-striving for ultimate peak performance. "Eighth and 10th positions weren't what we were hoping for as we came into this weekend," was the understated comment of McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh of the British Grand Prix. The fast sweeps of Silverstone had looked set to suit the MP4-27. This was the car, after all, that had set the fastest qualifying time by half a second around Barcelona, a track with a similar combination of fast, long-duration corners. "Our car is still weak on slow corners," said Jenson Button in the lead up to the weekend, "but is very well suited to fast ones and we should be a lot more competitive here than we were around Valencia where our slow corner performance was really hurting us." The car has been designed to operate within a very small ride-height window to maximise downforce, particularly at high speeds. Rising rate springs are used on the front to keep the car in this narrow window, with very stiff rates towards the end of their range. Into several slow corners this year - notably Bahrain - the McLarens could be seen to be bouncing on the sidewalls of their front tyres, setting up a rocking motion in the whole car as the stiff suspension didn't have the compliance to smother the opposing loads. Other times the problem has manifest itself as a difficulty in switching the front tyres on, in getting them quickly up to the correct operating temperature - as the stiffness in the car minimises the weight transference under braking that would normally aid in generating temperature. Recent rear suspension geometry changes have been to address this issue. The relentless Silverstone rain of Friday and Saturday rather mixed things up, but even so Hamilton was quickest in the heavy rain of Friday. "We were quick immediately on the full wet tyres," said engineering director Paddy Lowe. "You cannot do that without good downforce." Into qualifying things were still looking ok. When everyone was on full wets, Hamilton was among the very quickest. But as the rain held off for the crucial Q3 session bringing the track into intermediates territory, a McLaren problem was revealed: it could not get these tyres up to temperature in the one flying lap Hamilton had left after initially opting for wets. His gripless lap was good only for the fourth row, while Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber shared the front row. The Red Bull - with its latest rear body upgrades - was clearly better than Webber had expected through the fast corners and the Ferrari now seems strong on all types of track. But it was impossible to know how the McLaren would have compared in more straightforward circumstances. Was its difficulty on intermediate tyres derived from a set-up issue or was it intrinsic to the car's stiff platform concept? "There are things we can do with tyre pressures which we think will resolve it," said Whitmarsh on Saturday evening. At that time the forecasts were saying race day would be wet. The car