As Pat Fry was rushed to hospital with stomach pains this afternoon, it was McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh who appeared to be really hurting.

The raft of new parts having failed to move the team forward, Jenson Button even failing to make it through to Q3, Whitmarsh is under increasing pressure.

However, when asked if he might consider stepping down, something that was being talked about even before the season got underway, the Englishman said such a move hadn't been considered.

"I believe in the team, I believe we are going to power through this," he told reporters. "So no, I am not considering anything other than getting this team back to where it belongs.

"I've been around in the sport for a long time," he continued. "I think I've sat here in difficult, dark moments and sat here in good moments as well I am sure we are going to win some more races and we're going to work hard to do that this year.

"We've come back from worse than this," he added. "We're not where we want to be but we'll come back. We're a strong team and it's a long season ahead of us, and we've got to work away. We have great racing drivers. Both drivers will want to finish higher up than they did in qualifying."

Long before the start of the season, eyes were on Whitmarsh, under whose watch the team hasn't come anywhere near to echoing its golden era. Indeed, in the eyes of many, the departure of Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes appeared to sum up the growing lack of faith in the multi-championship winners.

The failure of the much-hyped updates was further compounded when it was revealed that new wings brought over from the team's Surrey HQ overnight couldn't be used because they had not been approved by the stewards.

When asked how a team with McLaren's history could make such a basic mistake as to bring parts that had not been approved, Whitmarsh said: "In fairness to the FIA, they have got no obligation to make it (the scrutineering equipment) available to us early on a Saturday morning. But that was the chance that we took.

"The tolerancing was sufficiently close that we took a view that this was something we would have to check," he added, "without that check, it wasn't prudent to go forward with those wings."

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