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]

teabagyokel fair comment, the line you quote does refer to hamilton and the garage reorganisation, it was one example amongst many of the ineptitude of Whitmarsh's role as TP. And it's fact. He took the engineer Hamilton had got used to working with ' to make if fair for Jenson'.What is this, boy scouts or a team wanting to win championships? But as I say, you picked up on one quote amongst many examples I gave to show the failure and decline of McLaren in Whitmarsh's hands.

In 2011 Hamilton was after Vettel and the championship, to believe he was after closing the gap to his team mate is to completely misunderstand the animal that is Hamilton.
Of course Hamilton wasn't pushed out of the team by Button, what an odd suggestion. And as you rightly say, there were failures everywhere under Whitmarsh..........including driver management.

 

[sushifiesta]

I'm not sure how much to read in to these, but are we looking at a predominantly grey McLaren with no title sponsor for 2014?

http://www.mclarenstore.com/en/restofworld/men/2014-replica-teamwear/icat/men2014replicateamwear/

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Are they still selling the rocket red 'winning' t-shirt?

 

[teabagyokel]

racecub - I'm not claiming that Whitmarsh was the best team principal in the world (yeah, no, erm... I'll give you three guesses who that Is) but I think there are a couple of things he can't be blamed for.

He can't be blamed for stuffing up driver management up, but he can be blamed for the repeated operational failures that cost him his driver.

Hamilton hasn't pushed McLaren (or Mercedes, frankly) along by force of personality as Alonso has Ferrari. I think there has to be a certain kind of season for Hamilton to win the title - one with some level of inconsistency elsewhere. 2012 was an opportunity lost, but he's never going to beat Vettel or Alonso in their best form in comparable machinery, because Vettel won't miss a chance and Alonso will accumulate.

 

[Mephistopheles]

To be brutally honest Lewis has to take some of the blame for the situation he found himself in at McLaren he was constantly making PR gaffs from lying to stewards, slagging of other drivers and the stewards stating publicly that he hated doing his PR duties, getting stopped by the police and having his car confiscated because he couldn't help showing off when leaving the track of an evening up to and including posting confidential information on twitter I.e telemetry even at Mercedes he has made gaffs like his bitchy radio calls to his engineer and you could tell that Ross was not impressed by his attitude even though he tried to put a good spin on it.

No sorry sometimes Lewis is his own worst enemy.....

 

[Fenderman]

Bollocks.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Okay I don't have a problem with your disagreement Fenderman but every word I wrote in my post is correct the only thing you can possibly disagree with is my conclusion, which like I say is absolutely fine as nobody can say what type of effect these acts of his had on the management and sponsors of the team, we certainly do know that Martin was not best pleased with the telemetry issue, and also aren't all of us guilty of being our own worst enemy at times and don't we all have to take responsibility for our own actions?

 

[Fenderman]

It's the regurgitation of a handful of misdemeanours - and minor ones at that in the context of F1 drivers careers - that drives me to say "Bollocks". I would be interested to see the results of your research into the characters and behaviour of every other driver in F1. Methinks that there is potential for a fabulous array of award catagories to find and classify an all time list of lying, cheating, stupid, accident prone, lovesick, puppy loving, own worst enemy, drivers, managers, engineers, designers, owners, fans ...

Edit: My apologies for my worst ever excursion from the discussion at hand. Mod's invited to delete.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I understand your frustration in that sense Fenderman and I will refrain from poking at it in future...

 

[Fenderman]

Just do it about someone else for a change


Edit: Er, should I encourage such a thing Probably not, but hey

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Are they still selling the rocket red 'winning' t-shirt?

They've got some old stock. But humans were smaller then so you have to order several sizes too big.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Apparently McLaren have confirmed they've passed all crash tests to looks like they will make Jerez.

 

[teabagyokel]

The tweeting of confidential data is just about the most immature thing an F1 driver had ever done.

Can't defend him on that count.

The rest is a run down is a drop in the ocean to what Raikkonen has done frankly.

 

[downforce]

Apparently McLaren have confirmed they've passed all crash tests to looks like they will make Jerez.

Thats down to Ron Dennis that is!

 

[Mephistopheles]

 

[The Artist.....]

Yes, obviously, in the few days since Ron Dennis returned, he has transformed the manufacturing capability of McLaren, and made a much stronger chassis, just because Ron Dennis is stronger than Chuck Norris....

On a serious note, for all those ridiculing Martin Whitmarsh because McLaren hadn't yet got through their crash test... There is only one McLaren boss who has presided over a car that NEVER passed a crash test.... Arise MP4-18

 

[Incubus]

Ron was actually sat in the car during the crash-test. His ego increased the monocoque's rigidity by about 700 per cent.

 

[Mephistopheles]

So no title sponsor for McLaren then it would seem...

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...title-sponsor-when-their-2014-car-is-launched

But if you go ahead and buy the drab grey team wear and a title sponsor does turn up then you are going to be out of pocket I guess or will it be like football teams and they change their strip every other game to keeps the fans buying their shit.....

 

[sushifiesta]

I wonder if they're getting money from Honda (to help them be competitive for 2015), but whilst McLaren are racing with a Mercedes engine Honda don't want to be associated with them. Probably complete bull shit but there's enough in there to make a convincing rumour I reckon

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

The rumoured candidate has been Sony for some time. Perhaps Sony would rather wait until Honda supply the engines? Bit tenuous and probably completely wrong.