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.)

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Sony and Honda are both big Japanese brands. Fits in with Jensons profile as well. He has a huge Japanese following. As for a car with no title sponsor, it's been done before; honda earth car, hrt, they all turned out ok didn't they?

 

[teabagyokel]

F1Yorkshire - And of course Brawn GP?

 

[Mephistopheles]

And McLaren 2006

 

[Plutus]

F1Yorkshire, but Honda didn't have to rely on finding a sponsor. McLaren on the other hand will suffer if they don't find a sponsor willing to pay a huge amount of cash. That is if Honda isn't investing any money into the team but another season like last won't be in their interest, so I think they might invest to try and prevent McLaren from failing again.

It is also a bad sign for Formula One if McLaren can't find a main sponsor, I would still consider them to be a top team that get a lot of media attention.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Sony and Honda are both big Japanese brands. Fits in with Jensons profile as well. He has a huge Japanese following. As for a car with no title sponsor, it's been done before; honda earth car, hrt, they all turned out ok didn't they?

Sure they're both big Japanese brands but I find it a bit strange if say Sony were witholding their sponsorship for a year until the engine supplier is also Japanese. It seems a little over-nationalistic to me. Unless Sony really hate Mercedes for some reason.

 

[Mephistopheles]

That's Whitmarhs's fault that is not 'avin' any title sponsor an' shit...

 

[Plutus]

And McLaren 2006

They had Johnnie Walker as a sponsor, I believe they invested £20 Million.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Plutus it's not that they haven't got any sponsors its just that they have't got one that is paying them the most money and doing PR work with them, it is not a disaster also read this (jump to "Sponsorship, naming and livery")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren#Sponsorship.2C_naming_and_livery

You will notice that 2006 is left out and that is because they did not have a title sponsor for that year, it even says so in the article about not having one this year.

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

And they are not saying they haven't got one they are just saying that a title sponsor will not be announce when the car is launched..

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Where have Vodafone taken their money? Ferrari?

 

[Mephistopheles]

I guess so but they were sponsoring Ferrari as well anyway...

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles
I did say the sponsors expect at least 1 world champion

 

[Plutus]

Of course, you are right Mephistopheles. I thought J. W. had also been their title sponsor for that year but they only took the biggest space on the side-pods.

 

[RasputinLives]

No title sponsor but a bigger budget for operations in 2014?

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/...rger-budget-in-2014-than-any-previous-season/

Mclaren are soooo money supermarket.com

 

[Il_leone]

racecub simply Hamilton was not good enough in 2011 to beat Button . It is not Whitmarsh's fault is Lewis is having personal problems with Nicole and his dad that is his affecting his driving -- he told Whitmarsh he was fit to race and Whitmarsh was probably fed up the press keep asking about Lewis' personal problems not what he is paid to do - perform on a race track on Sunday

You seem to forget Dennis was still in the background and he basically hardly ever spoke to Lewis from their previous relationship of father -son

Ron said he did not bother keeping Lewis last year

What probably ended Whitmarsh' reign as CEO is the fact one of the shareholders is selling up his stake in Mclaren so Ron does not want anyone outside to own Mclaren - he would rather take the team to the grave with him

and second the choice of Perez to replace to Hamilton appeared to be botched from the Mclaren way and his subsequent disposal of him where he quickly farmed him off to Force India to get himself out an awkward position but at the same time really missing out on a class driver like Hulkenberg is something Ron would not let happen

 

[Mephistopheles]

Whenever I type car is launched my brain keeps thinking when a car lunch'd because of the new turbo power plants..

 

[Bill Boddy]

McLaren did not have a main sponsor in 2006 but they still had over $400 million. The biggest contributor was Mercedes who in cash and non-cash terms supplied $222 million. Their cash income was $244 million, coming from 15 companies. The rest was listed as non-cash, for instance Michelin were listed as being $8.5 million. Several of the non-cash companies were IT related.

2007 they were listed as $493, including$75.5 million from Vodaphone.

Both years Johnnie Walker were listed as $14 million, all in cash, none in kind.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I reckon it would take me at least a week to drink $14 million worth of Johnie Walker now let me see do prefer black or red label..

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Are McLaren selling enough cars to fund the F1 team? I don't think so but it will help. I wonder how much they charge for providing the ECU's for the F1 grid and other racing series.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

They've sold 375 P1's at a cost of £866,000 each so that's a revenue of about £325million. I believe they're selling between 1,000 & 2,000 MP4 12Cs a year (that's a bit of a guess), price £170k not including any extras. Let's say 1500 cars per year, that's a revenue of around £255m. Profits are likely to be of the order of 25-50% so very approx. £100-200m profit. Plus sponsorship, F1 prize money, and revenue from other McLaren subsidiaries. I think they can afford a year or two.

 

[sushifiesta]

Considering how much I know many of you love him, I thought you would like to see this rumour: