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.)

 

[teabagyokel]

We do not lock threads in this particular forum, however that is not an excuse for a free-for-all. This is the McLaren thread so I suggest any further discussion about Lewis Hamilton's management, while not irrelevant, will be considered only tangentially related to the topic in hand and therefore as good as off-topic and deleted.

There is a thread for Lewis, although do not take this message as a free pass to go over there and continue this ridiculous argument.

 

[Brogan]

There were two requests to move the posts onto the Lewis Hamilton thread

Use the Report link to flag something to the moderators.
If the requests were posted in the thread then it's hardly surprising they were missed.

 

[RasputinLives]

Anyways.............Mclaren engine situation. Any rumours or signs which way they're gonna go at the end of their contract with Merc?

 

[Hamberg]

When is it up? 2012?

 

[FB]

Now here's a question for all you stato's - looking at Brogan's lap chart for Singapore Button was faster at the end of the race than at the beginning and Hamilton vica-versa. I know tyre strategies are different, Lewis was stuck behind other, slower, cars but has anyone looked to see if Jenson performs better on the light fuel load whilst Lewis is better when the car is heavier?

Might be a red herring but Jenson's pace at the end in Singapore, even if Vettel was just pacing himself, was pretty spectacular.

 

[Vortex]

Would need to study lap times from all previous races this season and get an average.

 

[Brogan]

Tyres will come into it too; both age and type.

 

[KekeTheKing]

see if Jenson performs better on the light fuel load.

You would expect him to qualify better if that was the case.

Jenson's pace at the end in Singapore..........was pretty spectacular.

Which is why it's hard to understand the 12 second gap after 12 laps, and the 20 second margin after 26 laps.

There was a line in Jenson's press conference that was a bit troubling to me. He said that late in the race he was able to find out what kind of pace the car really had. You'd want to investigate that a little earlier in the GP if you had a notion to win it.

 

[FB]

Unless he has the "yips" when it comes to qualifying? DC admitted that he had a problem with the single lap format and I can remember Eddie Cheever never getting it together when Q tyres were about but raced like a demon. Maybe Jenson just needs to "play himself in" wrt the car and tyres?

 

[KekeTheKing]

McLaren have certainly been tailoring their cars for the race. This must play into Jenson's hands.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think the answer on the heavy fuel vs lower fuel may be simple. I think its a combination of tyre preservation and fuel saving. I think where Singapore is concerned Jenson thought they might be trying for one less pitstop than Red Bull and maybe you have to take that into context with some of his lap times. Having said that I don't think we should underestimate just how quick Vettel was on Sunday. I think he spends most of those Grand Prixs he leads from the start at 95% if I'm honest.

I think you have to look at fuel saving too. GB was a bit example of this even if it was a slight error on Mclaren's part. Lewis went full pelt off the start to get into the thick of the fighting but later on had to back off to make sure the car gets to the line. In fact if it hadn't been for the Jenson's wheel coming off in the pit lane the likelyhood is that Jenson would have caught up to Lewis and maybe past him. Could these stats be as simple as Jenson likes to get his fuel save out of the way at the start of the race and then power through at the end whilst Lewis would rather get as far in front as he can and then pace it to the line?

 

[Road of Bones]

That's a good point Raspy - by geting the fuel-save in early, it does leave more options open towards the end of the race (and doesn't leave you a sitting duck if you have to pootle the last few laps in order to make it to the line).

Also worth considering is track evolution - more rubber on the circuit at the end of the race, plus a set of lightly-used options, plus lower fuel = "let's see if we can chase Vettel into an error, shall we?"

 

[RasputinLives]

That's a good point Raspy - by geting the fuel-save in early, it does leave more options open towards the end of the race (and doesn't leave you a sitting duck if you have to pootle the last few laps in order to make it to the line).

I think both ways have their merrit. Mr Vettel clearly does it the other way round and builds himself a big enough lead to pace himself to the line. Which way is best I don't know but I think we can see that without outside influences from traffic etc etc that the 2 Mclaren drivers go for different ways of doing this hence FBs observation that Lewis appears quicker early on and Jenson in the closing stages.

If you take China into account Lewis probably went into fuel saving mode when being stuck behind Rosberg etc etc which allowed him to charge through and take that win at the end. Jenson has clearly been getting his fuel svae out the way early ever since Monoco - be this down to preference or the fact he often starts lower on the grid I don't know.

 

[Brogan]

I think he spends most of those Grand Prixs he leads from the start at 95% if I'm honest.

Agreed.

And fuel saving at the start of a GP will have far more impact than at the end as there is a larger volume of fuel and therefore a bigger percentage saving to be made.

We all know from driving road cars that just easing off the throttle a fraction at the start of a journey does wonders for fuel economy.

Same for tyres and wear rates.

I guess when you have a car which is the class of the field though, you can afford that luxury.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Might be a red herring but Jenson's pace at the end in Singapore, even if Vettel was just pacing himself, was pretty spectacular.

At the start Seb was driving fast, towards the end he was not. Towards the end Jensons car was as light as it had been all race and he could also afford to put his foot down without worrying about tyres.

Thatshow I saw it, but I could be missing something

 

[FB]

My question was more of a general one Cookin about relative pace at the beginning and end of all races between the two drivers not just Singapore. I don't have access to all the data to make the comparison and wondered if anyone was sad enough to see if there was a pattern.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Fair enough FB, but without seeing the stats I would bet that towards the end of those races Jenson becomes less cautious and Seb becomes more cautious, and Jenson on light fuel maxs the car every time

 

[FB]

Meant Button & Hamilton Cookin. What we would need is a dry track, both on the same tyres and in relatively open air at the start and finish which is very difficult...

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Before Lewis' bad run of form I think we have had the same scenario, and in the dry Lewis tends to be faster over the race, Jenson does get stronger at the end, IMHO for same reasons I stated earlier when comparing to Seb

I am sure we will get a chance to compare over the next 5 races, especially now Jensons qualifying well

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Monday, October 3, 2011 - Note To McLaren:

Sometimes it's tough to See The Forest Through The Trees but one should recognize that Ferrari are waging a psychological war on one of your drivers in order to destabalize him in the near-to-medium term...in order to figuratively 'castrate' him...in order to make him less of a threat at the Japanese GP and, possibly, for next year. They're possibly trying to change Hamilton's modus operandi for the worse.

Ferrari are used to such mind games and destabization tactics as people in Woking are well aware.

Right now, they - via their Number 2 - are in the middle of an attack against one of McLaren's assets.

Hamilton - along with Button - is one of Woking's assets...so it's absoultely vital that the team sit down and close ranks completely and keep Hamilton's mind focused on the only thing that matters: Winning Grand Prix races.

The media are trying to hype the Massa-Hamilton Singapore issue up but McLaren and Hamilton should only answer questions the following way:

"The Team are here to win the Japanese Grand Prix. Whatever has happened in the past is in the past and we're here to focus only one winning this race. Penalties were given in previous races and were served. We drive on and focus only on the future."

There should be no mention of Massa or Ferrari in any interviews. Only the above quote to be repeated over and over again if questioned by reporters.