McLaren, Whitmarsh: “We can't afford any more retirements”

The McLaren team is aware that it cannot afford any more reliability problems this year if it wants to win the world championship.

Gearbox failure in Lewis Hamilton's McLaren in the Singapore Grand Prix left the English driver 52 points behind Fernando Alonso in the standings with six races remaining.

But despite the recent strong pace shown by McLaren, the retirements that Hamilton and Jenson Button have suffered in the last two races have highlighted the problems the team needs to overcome.

However, team principal Martin Whitmarsh has assured that the team will work hard to ensure there are no further retirements in the race.

“We have a pretty fast car, but I would have preferred no other retirements for the rest of the season,” he said.

“We need to make sure we get Lewis to the finish line in the other six races this year without any problems, and if we can do that, with the current pace of the car, then the title is possible.”

Hamilton's withdrawal from the lead in Singapore couldn't have come at a worse time, with the title fight hanging in the balance and the English driver pondering his future choices.

Whitmarsh thinks, however, that Hamilton will remain fully focused on winning the title, rather than dwelling on what went wrong.

“Lewis is a very strong driver, and he is confident in the team,” he said. “We are obviously disappointed, but he knows he is in a top team.”

“We have six rounds of the championship and there are 150 points available to him, so if we are able to go out there and win the last 150 points we can win the world championship.”

“We have to look forward. We are disappointed with the result, but we are not giving up and neither will Lewis. We will continue to fight."