The development race in Formula One never stops, and despite McLaren locking out the front row at the opening two rounds of the championship, the Woking-based team are bringing a raft of updates to Shanghai.

Lowe does not think the upgrades will extend McLaren's advantage, instead the experienced engineer believes they are a necessity just to continue to compete at the front.

"We have quite a few upgrades for this event, on pretty much all sections of the car," Lowe told a McLaren Mercedes 'Phone-in' session.

"So we're hoping for a reasonable step in performance. However, we expect that is only what we need to do to stay where we are, in terms of qualifying and race pace. I would be surprised if our principal competitors aren't also coming with reasonable steps forward. So that's the name of the game.

"It's a relentless battle for in-season development, particularly amongst the top teams. It's started already and we'll have to play our part and see if we can maintain the qualifying lead we had at the first two races."

Debate

One development the British team will not be bringing to Shanghai is a Mercedes-style front wing stalling device.

It is used in conjunction with the DRS but Lowe and his team are awaiting definitive confirmation about the system's legality.

"I think there are a number of points being debated behind the scenes," he added.

"I think what we need at this point is clarity. I would say it would have been better to have clarity before now. So we'll have to see what the next event - in China - will bring us in that sense.

"Until we've got clarity it's difficult for us to commit a huge amount of effort in that direction. So that's where we are at the moment."