Current McLaren

Arguably one of the big teams in Formula One but lately they don't seem to be able to get the basics right.
Some of their strategy and decisions in the last few years has left more than a few observers scratching their heads.

Just a few for starters:

• Leaving Kimi out on a badly flat-spotted tyre, resulting in it exploding on the last lap.
• Leaving Hamilton out on tyres so badly worn they were down to the canvas; Bridgestone themselves demanded that McLaren bring him in and McLaren refused, keeping him out for a few more laps. That decision arguably cost Hamilton the first rookie WDC and is one which will haunt him and McLaren for the rest of their days.
• Not sending Button and Hamilton out to get banker laps in during Q1.
• Sending Hamilton out on used tyres in Q3, with rain forecast, meaning it would be impossible to set a fast lap time on his second attempt on new tyres.

Their major updates seem to send them further down the grid, instead of challenging for pole positions and wins. As the season progresses they tend to get worse before getting better, by which time it is generally too late.

It's often said of them "write them off at your peril", but is this necessarily true?

The last time they won the WCC was in 1998 and their last WDC was 2008, before that 1999.
Their days of regularly winning championships seem to be well and truly behind them.

It's all well and good coming up with reasons why they haven't won championships.
The fact remains though, they have won just one WDC in the last 12 years.

So where to now for McLaren?

(I wrote this in rather a hurry so I will flesh it out when I have more time.)

 

[Mephistopheles]

No obviously they didn't win the championship in 2009 but they did win races and the next season they won the first race of the year and multiple races after that, and they were contenders right up until the end, so not bad really...

 

[Slyboogy]

Second race of the year mate

 

[Mephistopheles]

Ah yes I got confused that was the year that Bahrain held the opener and not Australia wasn't it....

 

[downforce]

Its easy to forget Bahrain 2010

 

[Porceliamone]

My affection for McLaren has diminished somewhat over the past few years. I never thought I'd even think it, let alone write it down. If that can happen to me then I dread to think how many fans must have totally deserted them over the last few years. *sigh*

 

[Slyboogy]

I used to be a die hard Ferrari fan ever since I started to watch F1, but in 2008 they were a load of shambles, and in 2009 aswell could predict what strategy they should be on even in the wet from just sitting at home yet they would mess it up, then they ousted Raikkonen after he single handedly was fighting for third and that was the last straw.

Now I just see them like any other team.

 

[downforce]

My affection for McLaren has diminished somewhat over the past few years. I never thought I'd even think it, let alone write it down. If that can happen to me then I dread to think how many fans must have totally deserted them over the last few years. *sigh*

Same for me, since I started watching in 1998 I was a McLaren fan through and through, they were the absolute best in my eyes and could do no wrong.

Since 2010 though I have been going the same way. They make it harder and more frustrating than ever to be fans of them.

and yes Slyboogy kicking Raikkonen was just unexplainable to me. Its the last thing I would have done If I was them

 

[Il_leone]

downforce RasputinLives Slyboogy Mephistopheles

Would you rather have Ron Dennis back then as team principal?

They could have won more titles but Mercedes let them down a lot of times

I do agree they don;t seem to apply consistency and yo yo between races from being front runners to being off the pace too often its frustrating

People say Mclaren should write off the season. It was not a clever statement to make about diverting resources to sort out this year's car ..you wonder if they should just bring last year's car back now?

i wonder what internal pressure are there within Mclaren to at least show competitiveness - they need to find sponsors money to pay the engines next year and they keep losing key resources

Who is pressuring WHitmarsh about his position given Dennis denied stories that he wanted control back

 

[Slyboogy]

Would you rather have Ron Dennis back then as team principal?

Doesn't matter to me, I don't support the team, nor do I think Whitmarsh is doing an inadequate job, it's McLaren just being McLaren.

 

[The Pits]

Personally, I cannot help thinking that it is the Ron Dennis influence that is holding them back. It was successful in its time, however, that time has passed, and it seems to me that the constraints placed on the workforce could be stifling thinking in many ways.

 

[cider_and_toast]

With only really the 1978 - 1981 period, 1995 and 2004 (if you convert the points to old money) showing up as worse starts to a season after 6 races, in McLaren's long history, the team really are in a huge slump this season.

The 1978 to 81 period saw the team run the M26 which failed to live up to the heights of the M23 and then McLaren failed to get to grips with the ground effect era and the arrival of turbo engines. All of this combined to produce the poorest period in the teams history. This all began to turn around with the arrival of the MP4/1 which returned McLaren to the podium in 81.

In 1995 McLaren got off to a poor start thanks to the "Chubby Mansell" issue and having just replaced the Peugeot engine which included the unique design feature of being able to explode frequently, the new Mercedes powered car proved less reliable. Being upgraded twice, the car did eventually reach the podium.

2004 got off to a bad start when McLaren found that it's MP4/18 design was not working at all which resulted in an upgraded version of the previous years MP4/17 (called the MP4/19) being used for the first half of the season. By the mid-season point a completely revised and almost new MP4/19B started to show much better results and took a race win.

The 2009 season was only a marginally better start than the seasons above and this year, but the DSQ didn't help matters.

The one major factor in the turn around of fortunes in 81,95 and 04 was the ability of the team to rebuild, redesign and re-launch an almost entirely revised car on all three occasions. This is something in the current era of F1 it is almost impossible to do thanks to the restrictions on chassis modification.

There is a crumb of comfort however, the 2009 season saw the team develop the MP4/24 enough to take two wins and a number of podiums finally finishing in 3rd place in the constructors.

One things for sure, with 5 wins and a 3rd in the last 7 Canadian GP's, Canada has been a happy hunting ground for McLaren and they will be desperate to turn things around.

 

[Il_leone]

I remember it was covered that Whitmarsh operates a matrix structure within Mclaren which means talking to two reporting lines but it also means conflict of resources required

I think Honda partnership is the next period of Mclaren resurgence possibly as the team is in a transition period

 

[Mephistopheles]

Personally, I cannot help thinking that it is the Ron Dennis influence that is holding them back. It was successful in its time, however, that time has passed, and it seems to me that the constraints placed on the workforce could be stifling thinking in many ways.

I agree a workforce works much better if they are relaxed and doing the job they are employed to do, being told not to wear shorts and being told to be ultra clean and ultra tidy just distracts from that job, which is building a fast car, not polishing a turd just so that it looks the part...

I would rather the McLaren was a dirty ugly mother fucker and quick than a beautifully polished work of art and slow...

 

[Il_leone]

The Pits Mephistopheles

That is what made Mclaren great or was this exaggerated by two supreme drivers they had in Prost and then Senna ?

Ron Dennis was a perfectionist - he hated losing more than anyone and you could see his sulking face post race.

-------------

Martin Whitmarsh is nicknamed Martin Whiplash but something does not seem to be working under his management where the team seems very inconsistent

 

[KekeTheKing]

One thing that Whitmarsh will never have is an ounce of charisma. The guy so often comes off as a total squid. He may be a genius behind the scenes, but as a public figure he's never inspired (my) confidence in their organization.

 

[teabagyokel]

KekeTheKing - Having said that, Christian Horner may just be the least charismatic person in Britain today and his team is doing OK!

 

[McZiderRed]

When he's sat on the pit wall during a race, Christian's charisma can be seen in his legs. Watch carefully next race and you'll see his charisma bounce about in a bid for freedom...

 

[racecub]

Didn't he used to model nude? Christian I mean not Whitmarsh.

And why have I just written that in the Mclaren thread? (confused and horrified smilies.....my smilies still gone walkabout)

To quickly bring things back on topic. How do you think they'll go this weekend? I think we'll see a steady improvement.

I actually think Martin seems a nice person, just ineffective, but I've thought that for quite a while not just recently.

What a garbled post!!

 

[Jen]

Here you go

Hopefully a one-off!

 

[F1Yorkshire]

This needs to be a caption competition! I would make one now but I'm on a bus with poor Internet signal and would probably cock it up! Can someone please do the honours?