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.)

 

[racecub]

Is that all you got from following the judge link. I saw that pic on there.....I sniggered....but there were lots of other things too.

 

[Bill Boddy]

There may well be but I was too busy picking myself off the floor and wiping the tears of laughter away to notice.

 

[F1ang-o]

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...and-good-organisation-for-2015-mclaren-return
Honda Motorport chief says he hasn't heard anything re Brawn being involved.

 

[FB]

Anyone else think 2014 will be a dead season for McLaren? Mercedes will give them zero help on the engine, they've proven they can't design a decent car without a superstar designer and they have one good (not great) driver and one journey man with a wallet full of peso's. Even if Brawn were to move to them now he couldn't influence next year's car so I see another season for misery for Button and McLaren fans.

 

[Road of Bones]

I suppose we'll have to wait and see, won't we, FB ?
You seem to be awfully quick to put the boot into them these days though. I still reckon Hulkenberg could replace Perez next season too, and I disagree with your assessment of JB's development skills - he might not be able to wring a bad car's neck as well as his former teammate, but to keep bringing the current one home in the points, as well as mixing it with the non-Vettel frontrunners, speaks of far more ability than you credit him with.

 

[KekeTheKing]

FB - I think the most interesting aspect is the engine situation. How can Mercedes fully include McLaren with their powerplant program? Of course they will fulfill their contractual obligations, but they've been put in an awfully awkward position. McLaren will essentially be working with two engine suppliers next year and there will undoubtedly be some kind of transfer of intellectual property on both sides. So, while you may be right about 2014, 2015 should hold great promise.

 

[RasputinLives]

I agree that 2014 will be a building year for Mclaren. A year to test design whilst waiting for that Honda engine.

Hence why I've suggested if they were ever going to take a gamble on Kevin Magnursen in the race seat next year would be the ideal year to give him a go to see if he's up for the proper championship push of 2015.

 

[MCLS]

McLaren really do need to pull a rabbit out of the hat in either 2014 or 2015 because really they've been on a gradual decline since Hamiltons title win

 

[F1Yorkshire]

2014 is the only chance of a season where a non Newey designed car will win. If Newey doesn't crack the regs for 2014 you can be pretty much certain that he will have it sussed by 2015. McLaren are scuppered, if they don't get back to the top in the next 2-3 seasons then where next? Sponsors don't care much for previous history, just look at Williams and Team Lotus and where they are now.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Road of Bones I'm not going to dismiss anything that FB says I learned the hard way on that one when I dismissed him saying McLaren wouldn't win a race this year......

 

[RasputinLives]

season ain't over yet Mephistopheles and we may be heading for a wet/dry/wet Brazil.

As for 2014 being the only chance a Newy car won't win. Lets remember we've had periods of Newy + Great Driver dominance before and eventually someone always catches up. Its the nature of the game.

 

[FB]

I disagree with your assessment of JB's development skills

I am being overly negative I suppose. Jenson, in the 2009 Brawn, was unbeatable. Prior to that season he had only performed above par in 2004 and then came up against the Red Machine. Every other time he's had a below par car it's stayed that way.

I'd hate to see McLaren go the way of Williams and I doubt his Ronness would let that happen but the rot has set in and it needs sorting pronto.

 

[RasputinLives]

He was pretty good in 2006 with a fairly dodgy car FB

 

[RasputinLives]

oh and as I just posted in the 2013 thread Mclaren go through a cycle and are currently in dirge stage before the new partnership in 2015 puts them into rise stage.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It's not like McLaren are the only team to have dips and peaks in their history is it? Ferrari have as well but they both remain at the top of the sport and teams that all drivers aspire to drive for they are the oldest two teams in the sport by far so this sort of thing is to be expected, so lets not talk about rot, Williams a a different kettle of fish relatively young as a team and really it is the love child of Frank, and it's his his diminished influence that will probably lead to the team being sold or just disappearing like so many others over the years....

 

[Il_leone]

the problem with Mclaren because they want to do everything in a structured professional manner to perfection it seems a bit too rigid compared to Red Bull who follow Newey's lead

Who's Mclaren designer of next year's car Tim Goss? I hope it aint Sam Michael.

As for Mercedes they promised they will deliver the same units as the factory team gets but Mclaren won;t get other support for Merc as it is purely supplier- customer relationship and not partners

I hope they have started work on 2014 car then.

I don;t suppose Mercedes would start given Mclaren duff engines if they are that worried about their secrets behind released to Honda.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I think it is complete nonsense to say that McLaren will get sub standard or not quite up to spec engines for next year lets face it there are only three engine suppliers for 2014 and you could say the same about any of the customer teams/suppliers, will Ferrari produce a below spec engine for their customers, will Renault? No of course they won't so why should Mercedes? it wouldn't do their rep much good if they did would it?

To be honest I have no idea where this notion has come from it makes absolutely no sense to me, why pick out McLaren and Merc to air this very dubious theory? or will Force India get sub standard engines as well, Merc doesn't have the time, the money or the inclination to produce two different types of the new power plants, it would be a colossal waste of resources, for zero gain, or do people believe that these huge manufactures spend their time, resources and money on silly pettiness...?

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles

Mercedes have been embarrassed my Mclaren for 3 years and at times Force India so they don;'t want a repeat of that

The one critical advantage Mercedes GP team have is they will develop the factory parts that goes with the engines obviously there will be more input into making it the chassis and engine work together well

Mercedes may give Mclaren equal engines but it does not stop any paranoia being set in especially if one team have engines that regularly fail or seems to be underperforming a lot

I will point you to DTM 1995 - Works Mercedes and Zakspeed Mercedes. Team Zakspeed were promised they were given equal equipment to Works Mercedes teams (AMG 1 and AMG 2). As the season went on Zakspeed regularly or seem to have more mechanical issues and they were convinced that they were not getting equal equipment

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles

You would think about engine inequality . However Ferrari have the dubious record before Toro Rosso's unexpected victory in Monza 2008 no Ferrari engine customer team won a race

 

[Mephistopheles]

And I will point to 2009 where Brawn shoehorned a Merc engine into a car that it clearly wasn't designed for and yet still took both championships, or that a Renault powered car has been making the rest of the grid look silly even though they are just a customer team when Lotus is Renault's main focus...