Countryman and fellow McLaren employee Pedro de la Rosa disagrees with world champion Fernando Alonso about the new chicane at Circuit de Catalunya.
Spaniard Alonso commented that he didn’t like the slower solution, which has altered the two sweeping corners at the end of the lap, after testing it for the first time in February.
But de la Rosa, who is a test driver for the Woking based team, insisted in Barcelona this week that it is hypocritical to complain on the one hand about the loss of quick corners and on the other about wanting better safety.
“If we want things to be safer then we cannot be sorry about sacrificing those two corners,” the 36-year-old is quoted as saying by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
De la Rosa said he personally likes the chicane, which now feels better to drive than in the winter tests.
“Firstly, it is safer, and secondly it is easier to overtake at the end of the straight.
“In February there was no grip but now there is almost as much as the rest of the circuit,” de la Rosa added.