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.)

 

[Legs]

McLaren's terrible season looks even worse if you consider that with a 9-6-4-3-2-1 or 10-6-4-3-2-1 scoring system they'd have scored just 5 points so far.

 

[Il_leone]

Lowe was dreaming of being a team principal and probably needed a change of environment if he wanted to challenge himself

It is only when Toto moved to Mercedes then suddenly Lowe's plan to move turned into a golden opportunity

 

[Mephistopheles]

McLaren rule out victory at Spa.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1...in-whitmarsh-excited-by-f1s-return-to-belgium

No shit sherlock.........

 

[Jos the Boss]

Am I the only person who thinks JB only won so comfortably last year because many of the challengers were RoGro'd or out of position?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Judging by his qualifying pace I would have said he would have won even without that....

 

[Jos the Boss]

I think he still would have won, but just not as easily as Sky F1 have been saying, he's not necessarily been amazing at Spa every other year

 

[Mephistopheles]

I just think that printing a story about someone saying they are not going to win when it is bloody obvious that, that someone is not going to win is stupid and a waste of time....

Maybe I should have put it on the non news thread....

 

[Jos the Boss]

I wonder what odds they give for Button not to win in Spa!
And thanks to that I won't be betting my Brogans on him!

 

[Mephistopheles]

He's 50/1 for the win and even those odds aren't long enough to tempt me...

 

[Jos the Boss]

I think it's all a scam from Mclaren, Martin probably has £10000 on him to win now, the bookies have been conned

 

[Il_leone]

Jenson Button at Spa

in his first race there he qualified 3rd back in 2000 and finished 5th
2001 and 2002 DNF
in 2004 he was 2nd from 12th on the grid but retired after a puncture
in 2005 he was 3rd in the wet
in 2007 and 2008 well he did not have a chance with that dog of a car

in 2009 he got taken out by Grosjean !
in 2010 he was 2nd and got taken out by an amateur named Vettel I remember the Mclaren guys storming out of the garage giving Vettel the hand gesture when he served his penalty
in 2011 he finished 3rd from 13th on the grid !
in 2012 he won from pole

 

[gethinceri]

He's a lovely boy.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Not a bad set of stats for Spa is it Il_leone considering it is a proper drivers circuit...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Jenson Button at Spa
in 2009 he got taken out by Grosjean !

As did Hamilton in the same incident but then Ro Gro has such splendid spacial awareness...

 

[Kewee]

Il_leone
Mephistopheles

Nice to see him get the credit he deserves.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Spa is a fast, flowing circuit with nothing very much in the way of kerbs to attack ; just the sort of circuit that suits Button. It could be that Button would have fared better had his career started thirty or forty years earlier.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I reckon he's fared okay a WDC isn't to be sniffed at...

 

[teabagyokel]

Mephistopheles - Hamilton was taken out in a separate, yet simultaneous, incident with Jamie Alguersuari. (or vice-versa)

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes you are correct teabagyokel with great age comes great memory loss...

 

[cider_and_toast]

The quote by Martin Whitmarsh on the official F1 website with regards to his pre-Spa race comments just serves to highlight what a pickle the McLaren team have found themselves in, this season.

"While we're not contenders for outright victory this time round, the whole team is looking forward to another opportunity to build on our ability to understand and operate the MP4-28"

So, we're over the half way point of the season and it sounds like they still need to gain a better understanding of the car. If that's the case, don't waste the resources, write this season off as a major balls up and throw everything at 2014 but get it right this time.