Formula One: McLaren admit mistakes as run ends

McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh attends the official press conference following practice for the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 7, 2013 in Montreal, Canada. (Getty Images)

McLaren team chief Martin Whitmarsh admitted he and his team had made mistakes after they failed to score a point for the first time in 65 races.

The team’s run of 64 points scoring races came to an end at the Canadian Grand Prix where Mexican Sergio Perez finished 11th and Briton Jenson Button was 12th.

Whitmarsh said: “To have that run in the points come to an end is a bit of disappointing.

“It was a tough afternoon. We got it wrong, we should have started on the prime. We really stayed out on the option too long, stayed in traffic and lost a lot of time.

“In the case of Jenson, we set him lap time targets which were too slow – and he could have gone much faster. He could have pushed into the points.

“It was one weekend where we didn’t get it right. We were not quick enough to be at the front but we should have been able to get in the points.”

Button said: “I have never been so pleased to get out of a car, it wasn’t a great race for us today, this is a track which is usually good to us but.

“We want bigger things than one or two points, all goods things come to an end… if we had got one or two points we would be disappointed. We were lapped easily and just didn’t have the pace.

“I am looking forward to Silverstone, because it can’t be worse than here. We tried some new parts here which didn’t work on this circuit but they should work better at Silverstone so hopefully we will have something to celebrate.”

Perez said: “It was very disappointing. It was not the race we hoped for — probably the worst race of the season in terms of pace.”