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]

I think driver feedback had a lot more influence back in his day as they just didn't have the amount of telemetry as they have now, I believe what a driver gives in feedback in modern day F1 is negligible at best, in fact the pit crew probably knows more about what the car is doing than the driver does...

 

[Jen]

All except the 'handling' Mephistopheles.

Anyone who isn't in the cockpit is in a simulator - so, I think, there is a relevance to driver feedback. Maybe not much, but it could make all the difference.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes Jen but handling is more down to set up than car development, at the start of the year the Toro Rosso looked like a sweet handling car but it wasn't very fast....

 

[Quintessentially]

Whitmarsh has never struck me as an inspirational man. Surely a team should be inspired by their leader. .

Erm yeah apparently he likes to sing agadoo in the bath at the MTC so you may be onto something there....

 

[Mephistopheles]

Whitmarsh has never struck me as an inspirational man. Surely a team should be inspired by their leader.

Whilst someone like Horner should take up motivational speaking as a living, he's about as inspirational as a dead fish and look how his teams doing...

 

[Titch]

This is the McLaren thread, not the RBR thread, so I posted my thoughts on Whitmarsh not Horner.

 

[Jen]

I think it was just a comparison Titch!

Both Whitmarsh and Horner are fairly dull and lack lustre. Although I would respond better to the cuddly Martin than the irritating, smug and overblown Christian!

 

[Titch]

When I find the Horner thread I will let you all know how underwhelming I find him.

 

[Mephistopheles]

And Titch I'm saying, just because a person doesn't seem to be the most dynamic of leaders it doesn't mean they do a bad job or the team suffers because of it.....

 

[Il_leone]

How much success do you contribute Horner behind Red Bull's success?

Whitmarsh has more influence on the running of his team than Horner does with his

Difference between Whitmarsh and Dennis is Ron lets you who is in charge

Some of the drivers outbursts would not have happened under Ron Dennis

 

[Jen]

And quite a few did happen under RD.

A leaders job is to bolster and encourage without stating the bleeding obvious, surely?

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don't know about that Il_leone Alonso kinda did Ron no favours in 2007 did he....

 

[Jen]

Nando did Ron a huge favour - he escaped the straight jacket!

 

[Titch]

I'm not sure that the McLaren/Alonso saga of 2007 did anyone's reputation much good. Who knows the truth of it all. Certainly Alonso was so incensed by behind the scenes jiggery pokery that he felt compelled to do something. And almost as certainly McLaren felt he was being disloyal. Mud was slung and stuck for a time to all concerned. That was Ron Dennis for you. Whitmarsh would never create that situation. Do I like Ron Dennis, no. But I still think Whitmarsh is wet. But I'm probably wrong, he's probably a really good guy.

 

[Jen]

It is possible to be inept but wholly nice.

 

[Josh]

Surely Ron Dennis, being the great leader he is according to some, would have known Martin Whitmarsh was not capable for the job when he was being groomed?

 

[FB]

One problem for powerful men (and women) is that they rarely recruit anyone who could threaten their position - witness Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh. F1 teams rarely thrive when the "engine" of the team stands down and McLaren look they are going the same way.

 

[cider_and_toast]

FB, the only time I can ever think of it happening is Ron replacing Teddy Meyer at McLaren and Bernie replacing Black Jack at Brabham.

 

[FB]

But Ron was imposed by Marlboro and Bernie bought Brabham.

 

[Il_leone]

Titch Jen Mephistopheles

Nando did not do Ron any favours

- He pushed his luck and was known who is in charge but he then just kept turning up the ante further to breaking point

Ron who had been quiet up to China until he finally had enough and made his own blunt statement or at least got whitmarsh to say it " We were racing against Fernando!"

Josh
You think Flavio is up to the job or Horner if they were given the Mclaren hot seat then ?

He employed Whitmarsh to be his No 2 but after losing everything Ron had enough of F1 and the fighting with Max so decided to move on no doubt the other shareholders and key sponsors were keen to know who he thought should replace him

Boardroom politics can get messy but at the time it made sense that Whitmarsh being at Mclaren for 22 years should succeed Ron obviously people like Pat Fry , Paddy Lowe and Dave Ryan may have thought otherwise

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Yes Ron vision of Mclaren was ultimate perfection in everything hence his aloofness, Whitmarsh was more media friendly but also wanted to implement his own methods and perhaps that has lost them the edge in perfection.

Its obvious being the top person you want to run your own way
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FB Quite right Project 4 with Marlboro who wanted a world champion driver after initially wanting Ron to put heavily backed Andrea De Cesaries (Crasharis) in one of the cars

So only Piquet around and Jones having retired , he had to bring Lauda back . Despite Watson beating Lauda in the two seasons in a row he was the one who was dropped for Prost not Lauda