McLaren engineer director Paddy Lowe says his team may still struggle to match the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren finished fourth and fifth in Germany on Sunday behind a rejuvenated Ferrari, who secured a one-two finish, and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

"Red Bull and Ferrari were quicker in Germany," said Lowe. "We hope to close that gap a bit but not all of it."

"We had a step in Germany and we hope to have a better step in Hungary."

McLaren lead the drivers' and the constructors' championships with four victories from the 11 races so far this season.

But there have been performance concerns in the last couple of races as McLaren have tried to introduce their version of the exhaust-blown diffuser. The innovation, which increases downforce and therefore cornering speed, has been credited as the reason behind Red Bull's pace this season.

Other teams have also brought in their versions of the device, with Ferrari using it from the European Grand Prix at the end of June.

McLaren had hoped to introduce the upgrade for the British Grand Prix earlier this month but were forced to abandon it after Friday testing. It was brought in for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim but with Ferrari and Red Bull so dominant, McLaren were denied a place on the podium for the first time since Monaco back in May.

"We are a couple of races behind Ferrari in introduction [of the blown diffuser] and half a season behind Red Bull," added Lowe. 

"But we did reach a point in Hockenheim of being able to race a working system which was both giving us performance and was reliable."

"We are able to deliver something extra with that floor. I think, though, being behind the curve there is more to come relative to those principle competitors."

"We will find more all the time in terms of performance so we will keep pushing on and it's a new platform in which to find performance."

"It is complex. There are all sorts of different aspects to it. We are quite early so we expect to get more from it in due course."

After Sunday's race, in which Ferrari's Fernando Alonso secured a controversial victory over team-mate Felipe Massa, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton said his team had to go "back to the drawing board" following his fourth-place finish. Lowe said he did not think such drastic action was necessary, insisting: "Going back to the drawing board sounds a little bit extreme I have to say.

"We have got our work cut out to find, we were about six tenths off in qualifying and in the race in Hockenheim."

"I don't think there is anything particularly bad about our car, I don't think Lewis or Jenson would say that there was."

"We were not quick enough but there is no sense in which the car was fundamentally deficient."

"It's more about pushing the development harder trying to see the gaps and the opportunities and delivering them."

Lowe added that the advantage they had with their pioneering 'F-duct' aerodynamic device, which increases a car's speed down the straights and has since been adopted by the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull, had now been "neutralised now amongst our competitors".

"We see now that Ferrari and Red Bull were stronger in Germany we shouldn't forget that they have adopted the 'F-flap' system which was an advantage for us in in early season," he reflected.

Lowe hinted that McLaren are considering adapting the front wings used by Ferrari and Red Bull which caused a stir in Germany. The sport's governing body, the FIA, cleared the wings after some teams had expressed concerns that Ferrari and Red Bull were using flexible parts to help the performance of their cars.

"I have seen a lot of pictures on that subject," commented Lowe. "We believe that two cars, Ferrari and Red Bull, have wings existing at a much lower position that certainly we are able to deliver.

"What we are doing at the moment is working really hard to try to understand it and see if it's worth performance to us and whether we can also deliver that."

Lowe also revealed that the number of tethers on cars will be doubled next season to reduce the danger from wheels bouncing away after crashes. A second tether will connect each wheel to the chassis and Lowe added: "Our thinking is that if you put two tethers on each corner that are run independently...then we're going to drastically improve the probability that one or both tethers survive in an accident."

Baffled by "Flexi-Wings"

Paddy Lowe admits the Woking squad remains mystified by how Red Bull and Ferrari are able to run their front wings so low to the ground – but is determined to find out so that it reaps the same performance gains.

Photographs circulated in the Hockenheim paddock showing the Red Bull and Ferrari front wings apparently flexing under load and tilting downwards provoked suspicion among rival teams, but both the RB6 and the F10 were given the all-clear by the FIA in post-race scrutineering.

Regulations require F1 cars’ bodywork to be rigid and tests are carried out to ensure that wings do not flex by more than a stated maximum, but these tests do not fully replicate the 5G loads cars generate in high-speed corners or under heavy braking.

The ground effect from running front wings lower is a potentially significant advantage, affording not only more downforce overall but a better aerodynamic balance – offsetting the increased rear downforce generated by exhaust-blown diffusers.

Red Bull and Ferrari have dismissed the photographic evidence as being unscientific and unreliable, suggesting numerous factors (such as fuel loads, the braking forces being generated, tyre pressures or simply different camera angles) could explain the visual discrepancies.

But speaking in Wednesday's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in, Lowe insisted there was a fundamental difference in car behaviour.

“I’ve seen a lot of pictures on this subject,” he said.

“We believe, and we’re not alone, that two cars – Ferrari and Red Bull – have wings existing at a much lower position than we're able to deliver."

“There’s a difference of a reasonably large degree, so it’s difficult to explain by relatively subtle effects such as fuel weight, tyre pressure or differences in end-of-straight or high-speed set-up."

“These things affect the car to a relatively small degree, much smaller than the differences that we’ve seen in the pictures."

“So there is a phenomenon that we’re seeing. It may be entirely legitimate, it may not be.”

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh has made it clear that, rather than protesting its rivals’ front wing designs, McLaren will seek to emulate them.

Lowe admits it has made little progress in discovering the secrets so far, however.

“We just don’t understand it,” he said.