Zoom Perhaps Williams got it right admits Whitmarsh

Third and tenth position for McLaren Mercedes at the Singapore Grand Prix may not sound like a great result, but it was as rivals Ferrari failed to score resulting in Lewis Hamilton extending his championship advantage to seven points and the team taking over the lead of the constructors' championship. The 15th round of the championship was a brand new venue and McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh looks back on a historic race weekend for Formula One.

Despite the lengthy preparations beforehand, were there any aspects of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend that caught the team unawares?
"The bumps were a factor that caught everybody by surprise. Before we arrived in Singapore for the race weekend, we sent people there to do an accurate survey of the track surface for use in our pre-race engineering work. Inevitably, with a new circuit, the track surface evolves and the asphalt settles - a factor that we either didn’t measure or that developed after we'd done our survey. So that was the most unexpected element of the weekend.

"We also need to look more closely at the pitlane exit and entrance. I think the race organisers will probably have to extend the entrance and exit for next year, moving them further away from the apices of corners. I'm sure that will be changed." Were you satisfied with the approach taken to the drivers’ schedule?
"Yes, it worked amazingly well. Both drivers were incredibly dedicated - and the team that set their schedule up, led by Aki Hintsa, put a lot of work into it. But it was quite a bizarre experience: I went back to the hotel after the sessions, had something to eat and then sat with our drivers until 4.00am. You left them to go to bed and they would be putting on a movie - it was quite a strange feeling, but it worked very well."

What were your overall impressions of Formula 1's inaugural night race?
"In terms of ambience, facility and backdrop it was just fantastic. Clearly, this has been a learning year and the organisers will have spent a lot of time overcoming the unique difficulties of attempting to put a racetrack into a metropolis. But we’ve seen Monaco evolve over many years and I can see the Singapore Grand Prix becoming our 'Monaco of the East'. The commitment of the Singaporean Government and the race organisers has created an enormous amount of goodwill and that will only be reflected by the teams, who will really want to make this venue work."