Contrasting comments are coming in from the McLaren camp over the Australian Grand Prix result. On the one side is Lewis Hamilton who had a superb race starting from eleventh and is understandably disappointed that it didn’t yield any further than sixth. Then there is team boss Martin Whitmarsh who suggests that there was nothing wrong with their strategy of calling in Lewis for a second pit-stop. Both however have atleast one similar opinion – that McLaren should have had a 1-2.

It is interesting to note why Lewis is feeling let down after this race. Here comes along a new team-mate who is by the way also the reigning World Champion. To make matters worse, he is a British driver in a British team and a really nice bloke, liked by many across the pit-lane. McLaren have always harped about equality amongst their drivers and adding up all the above, it means that this season more than any other you have to win over the team on the track. The first win of the season going over to Jenson is but a blow for Lewis.

The contentious issue is whether the pit call was right or not. It is very tough to say whether or not Lewis would have been able to cover the entire race on just one soft sets like Button. For he is not known to be kind on his tyres and the biggest hint was when he radioed to his team whilst following Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari that ‘he had lost performance in his tyres’. That was the second set which he had used very well to close the gap to the Ferraris in third and fourth. Would he have been able to close such a gap later in the race if he was on his first sets?

That is the question which makes the call to pit look right. However the point is he probably wouldn’t have been in that position because when he pitted, he was all over the back of Robert Kubica’s Renault (in second place) and rest assured would have gone past sooner or later. And maybe might have taken a shot at overtaking Jenson as well. That is something even the Pole has admitted. This is where the pit call seems to be wrong.

However where McLaren do stand to be in the right is because they weren’t thinking of favoring one driver but the team. For them it was simple: Jenson wins the race if the first four finish on a one-stop strategy. If they do take second pit-stops, then Lewis was the lead driver on-track with that strategy. And Jenson with his nursing approach would have pitted later with an advantage or probably even not as it eventually turned out, bringing home their first 1-2 finish of the season.

Given that Formula One is so highly staked when it comes to results, that is where it must be hurting most for the Woking-based outfit and not the fact that their child prodigy Lewis Hamilton is blaming them for wrecking the ‘drive of his life’.