THE STATE OF MCLAREN

Currently the state of McLaren is not good and it does not look good either for the rest of the season. The car is not performing at low, medium or high downforce tracks, in short it is not performing at all.

The last few races we could see that Lewis is doing everything he can to wring out every inch of performance from the car and Heikki too but somehow when it matters most i.e. during qualifying and the race, it lets them down. The back is so twitchy that on-board footage of Lewis or Heikki driving it looks like a wrestling match between the driver and machine.

I said it weeks ago that McLaren should forget about this season and concentrate on next year. They need to put resources where it matters as this season is too late for them. Brawn GP and Jenson Button has run away with the championship. It's a battle between Brawn and Red Bull. Now even Lewis has admitted it to the world.

And talking about his despair, it is revealed clearly this year that not only does the driver matter but the car is ultra important. Yes Lewis arrived in 2007 at the wheel of a good car and he was lucky but he is also a good driver as he beat a 2 time world champion in the same equipment. The same cannot be said of Nelson Piquet as we can see at Renault this year. That also shows how important the car is as Alonso being the good driver he is, is still unable to match the Brawns or Red Bulls.

This is a good lesson for Lewis and McLaren. I suggest they put their heads down and work on next years' car. Heikki might not survive to next year, so Lewis' teamate might be Rosberg which I prefer. That would be interesting.

As for todays' race, it would be a straigh fight between the Brawns and Red Bulls. I'm rooting for Vettel, hopefully he can pul the cat out from the bag. The Red Bull car is a solid piece of engineering - fast, well balanced and reliable, just the tools one needs to win races. The Brawns are also fast, well balanced and reliable so this should be a good show.

Alvin