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.)

 

[Galahad]

So is Martin Whitmarsh McLaren's Cesare Fiorio? And if so, where is their Jean Todt?

 

[Il_leone]

Someone mentioned Cesare Fiorio who did have a serious hotseat at Ferrari replacing the Commadore as team principal and getting attacked from all directions

Whitmarsh is nicknamed Martin Whiplash apparently

 

[Bill Boddy]

By whom?

 

[Mephistopheles]

That's the first time I've heard him called that, I thought that name was reserved for Max Mosley.....

 

[Mephistopheles]

I hope you all realize that it is all my fault McLaren are having a bad season, I caused it to happen when I laughed at FB after he had posted that McLaren would not win a race this year....

So stop pointing the finger at Button and Whitmarsh it has nothing to do with them.....

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wonder what odds you would have got on McLaren not winning a race all year and Hamilton winning one or more?

 

[Fenderman]

Dunno but it's thoughts like that that make me wish I was a gamblin' man.

 

[sushifiesta]

They could still win a race this year...

I'll get my coat shall I?

 

[RasputinLives]

Stranger things have happened.

 

[teabagyokel]

If Fisichella could win one in the excerable 2003 Jordan then anything can happen...

 

[sushifiesta]

This is a bit of an eye opener: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109224 . Apparently McLaren were in the dark with wind tunnel to real world correlation in 2012 as well but luckily for them the car was performing better than they were expecting rather than worse like this year!

 

[KekeTheKing]

I think every year since 2009 McLaren have claimed to have had windtunnel correlation issues. I'm not sure they've ever sorted it out.

 

[cider_and_toast]

F1 teams have known for years that there is no substitute for time spent actually running the car.

So what this article says to me is that just because last years car went better than hoped, McLaren automatically added that as a fudge factor to their wind tunnel data this year. So, if their data showed a, let's say, 5% improvement on the wind tunnel data for the 2012 car they automatically assumed that would lead to a 5% improvement on the track by applying their fudge factor.

Sounds like far too many assumptions were made over the off season about expected levels of performance and you know what they say, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

 

[Jen]

Science sucks, eh?

 

[Il_leone]

Bill Boddy Mephistopheles

I met someone who use to work for Mclaren for 20 years but was made redundant . Obviously unhappy about losing his job but he did mention Ron was a perfectionist and Martin Whitmarsh was nicknamed Martin Whiplash probably because it was under Ron's orders

 

[Jen]

Martin has been in charge since March 2009 - 4 and a bit years by my reckoning. Can't help but feel that if Ron was that upset with Martin's 'performance' he (Ron) would have ousted him (Martin) by now.

They've just got a crap car and no amount of tweaking will make it work this year.

So McLaren need to salvage what they can from this year and make sure that the design team get it right for 2014.

 

[racecub]

I believe Ron is engaged in battle with the board..and has lost his power to make unilateral decisions. So even if he was distraught about the wayMcLaren has gone, he has no power to rectify it.
The car is crap. Why? Who sanctified decisions to make mega changes from a potential championship winning car with one year to go to a complete rule change? Why has the top driver and top technical guy left? I think a lot of questions remain unanswered regarding the current McLaren.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I would have thought that you would have been happy that Lewis has left McLaren and is currently driving for a race winning team racecub I believe that Lewis left because he wanted to leave nothing more nothing less, I think you do him a disservice by suggesting it was anything other than that, as it sounds like from your post he wasn't man enough to stand up to Button and Whitmarsh and simply fled for pastures new, like a cub being driven out of the pack....

And like I said I don't believe that....

 

[Lewywo4]

I think you do him a disservice by suggesting it was anything other than that, as it sounds like from your post he wasn't man enough to stand up to Button and Whitmarsh and simply fled for pastures new, like a cub being driven out of the pack...

I don't see it at all, how you felt that racecub in her post insinuated, hinted, implied or suggested that Lewis as you said, " wasn't man enough to stand up to Button or Whitmarsh, " especially when I believe that racecub knows that Jenson needs a perfectly setup car in order to challenge for a race win, a problem that Lewis doesn't seem to have.

IMO some comments by Ron Dennis may have caused Lewis to leave McLaren, hardly a slower team mate like Button.

Young males are driven from packs not...cubs.

 

[racecub]

Mephistopheles I referred to Lewis and Lowe leaving simply as an indicator that something at Mclaren may have been amiss. Lowe after all was preparing to take a salary cut to go to Williams when Mercedes signed him. Lewis was going from top team to a mid field team. That's it! The rest, not standing up to Button and Whitmarsh, not being man, doing Lewis a disservice, being chased out is your fabrication. I didn't say it and I don't think it. Yes I'm very glad it turned out that way, but Lewis has had nothing but praise for Martin, before and since he left. He said his phone call to tell Marin he was leaving was the hardest he'd had to do in his life. On Button he never comments.So you're way, way off the mark with your insinuations.
I could hazard some guesses as to why they left, or factors that may have contributed, but I didn't, because they'd just be guesses. But I do think something is amiss and I don't think Ron has the power to change anything.