Exclusive – Allen insists McLaren are not heading for breaking point

James Allen insists McLaren are not heading for breaking point, despite the current problems besetting the team.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button suffered a disappointing British Grand Prix last weekend, with Hamilton claiming his team got things wrong during qualifying to leave him tenth on the grid (he recovered to finish fourth), while Button was forced out of the race when he left the pit lane minus a wheel nut on his front tyre.

The British pair are languishing well behind drivers’ championship leader Sebastian Vettel and there have been stories all is not well in the camp.

But Allen has told talkSPORT he expects the current issues to be resolved. He said: “My personal view is the car isn’t fast enough and that’s a fundamental problem for this year. But they’re a very strong team, extremely well funded, they’ve got great resources, two great drivers, good engineers and a good management structure. Yes, there are some niggles but the situation will calm down and I don’t see this leading to some kind of breaking point.”

There have been suggestions that both Hamilton and Button would consider their futures at McLaren, with Hamilton’s meeting with Red Bull boss Christian Horner at the Canadian GP adding fuel to the fire.

Allen added: “There have been signs all is not well at McLaren. It seems both the McLaren drivers have been looking around, particularly in the direction of Red Bull, because they want to get into a car that’s going to be a race winner.

“But both of them have won a race this year and three or four weeks ago no-one was talking about McLaren self-destructing after Button’s win in Canada. It just shows it’s a hype-driven sport and doesn’t take much for a few little mistakes to have people saying the wheels are falling off.”