Pre-Season 2018 Season Preview

From the Sky live feed

08:59

Oh no, the McLaren has broken down
The McLaren has broken down at the start of the pit straight...

The red flag is out while the marshals scurry to assist Vandoorne.

But a poor start to Test Two for McLaren with just five laps and two breakdowns on the clock this morning.

ROFL
 
BBC F1.jpg


I think my schadenfreude gland has just gone in to hyper mode. Is there something which expresses more amusement than the ROFL emoji?
 
Hilarious. Toro Rosso haven’t had a single issue and McLaren have only covered a few kilometres as they have done in the last few years too.

I’m afraid it wasn’t all down to Honda, and I wonder who they’re going to blame this season...
 
I think the party line will go along these lines.

"It's very hard to compete in F1 if you're not an engine manufacturers main team"

To which we'll all say "well duh!"

Then they say "at least we still have Alonso" before looking round to see him driving off laughing in his WEC car.
 
On that note - I can't think of another time in living memory when an F1 driver was running a full series in another category. Surely that was a sign to Mclaren that there lead driver didn't really have that much confidence in how competitive the car was going to be.

I'm still adamant Mclaren should have kept Honda, gone with Vandorne/Norris and just rebuilt from the ground up.
 
Depends on how long you call 'living memory' I think Mario Andretti did the Indy series and F1 simultaneously and I have a feeling in the early 80's 80's Teo Fabi may have as well.
 
Teo Fabi would have been lucky to win a raffle.

Mario won the 1978 title and raced in 9 of the 18 Indy car races that season. I don't think he managed a full season in both series simultaneously though.

To put it into context of yesteryear, in 1964 Jim Clark completed a full season in F1 finishing 3rd overall, completed in 7 non championship races, 8 F2 races winning 4 and finishing 2nd twice, won the British touring car championship by winning every race he started and set pole at the Indy 500.
 
When Teo Fabi was doing Indycar and it clashed with an F1 race his brother Corrado took driving duties at Brabham. Strange things happen in F1.
 
to put it into context of yesteryear, in 1964 Jim Clark completed a full season in F1 finishing 3rd overall, completed in 7 non championship races, 8 F2 races winning 4 and finishing 2nd twice, won the British touring car championship by winning every race he started and set pole at the Indy 500.

That's still less competitive driving time than Alonso will do this year if he does a full season in both.

I'm pretty certain one of the series will go if a title is in the offing in the other one. Basically what I'm predicting is that post the summer break you will probably see Alonso start to 'skip' a few Grand Prix and Norris getting a run out.
 
So Ferrari top the time sheets but Merc did more laps. Very surprised to see Mercs on soft tyres as they usually just pound round on the mediums.

Torro Rosso seemed to 'have the afternoon off' Hmmm. Still more laps than Mclaren though.
 
yeah McLaren this is worrying times but at least this will be easier to change because overheating causing the electrical problem is inhouse problem not a engine problem so it can be rectified far quicker & that's what testing is for to in 1 sense break the car before melbounre. but as we all mentioned they have lose their scapegoat now, so questions get tougher. for me really they were more patient than given credit for, because in comparison with Ferrari & Renault. Ferrari only gave James Allison chance to design 2 cars to close the massive gulf to Mercedes. then sacked him halfway through the 2nd car & also between 2013 - 2014 they went through 3 team principals. Renault gave Palmer 1 season, then 2nd season there was rumours by the time we had got to spain

But for me McLaren had to leave the relationship because untenable (for football fans like arsenal & wenger) both parties had to have a fresh start. if this was Mclarens 3rd season then they would still be with honda. but after series of catastrophes they endured with 9 engines blown in 8 days of testing, 109 PU parts in total 12 more that Mercedes & Ferrari combined, so many they broke FIA PU graphic. Grid pens before spain. Alonso had to wait til Azerbaijan to see the chequered flag. which he only saw 7 times in 2017 & 5 of them came in the last 6 races. but the possibility no matter how high or small a 4th season of that at times humiliation was unimaginable. just couldn't be risked
 
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