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.)

 

[Kewee]

Money was an issue but they also realised the cars development had nearly peaked and it was going to be very difficult to make the necessary advances regardless of funding. The design was a gem right out of the box so any further gains were going to be hard to achieve.

 

[The Artist.....]

RasputinLives I'd tend to agree about the Brawn; it had virtually no development money for the season - they had far fewer updates than their rivals...

A more valid comparison might be Red Bull from 2010 - 2013; they started with an advantage due to clever engineering, and if anything this was extended by the end of 2013.

The biggest problem that Honda face is that they are rather restricted in the modifications they can make due to the token system; they cannot introduce a complete new power unit, with a completely new design; if there are fundamental flaws with the layout of the engine, they are stuffed.

 

[sobriety]

From BBC

Alonso was around 15km/h slower than Hamilton's Mercedes through the speed trap at the end of the long straight after Eau Rouge.

By contrast, he matched the pace of the fastest car, Ricciardo's Red Bull, at the second speed trap, which is between the Stavelot and Paul Frere corners at the end of the second sector, and is a measure of corner exit speed more than engine power.

Not looking good for Honda

 

[sushifiesta]

How much slower were the Ferrari and Renault cars than the Mercedes, though?

 

[Incubus]

Quicker than the Mercedes today actually in the case of Red Bull. Although they obviously went for a very low drag setting.

Somehow you can't imagine the McLaren being quicker than the Mercedes on the speed trap, even if it ran without any wing at all.

 

[The Artist.....]

Incubus but remember, it's the chassis at fault, not the engine!

 

[RasputinLives]

Mclaren to start at the back of the grid until the 3rd race into the 2021 season.....well not quite but we're getting there.

Hefty initial grid drops for McLaren pair

 

[RasputinLives]

Also Vandoorne's pole time in GP2 was less than 2 seconds off Button's time in FP2

 

[teabagyokel]

That McLaren is state-of-the-ART.

 

[The Artist.....]

Given how many places the McLarens are going to be deducted for Sunday's race, I wonder if the stewards will take the extraordinary decision to disqualify them, for "taking the piss out of the regulations"!

 

[racecub]

I blame Martin Whitmarsh.

You know you have a point here! I agree with you! I said so a few years ago before things fell apart. But then it was very unfashionable to call out Whitmarsh and Button. But........guess what happenned? Well you know what happenned. Summer 2012 Whitmarsh focused the team on sorting out the woes of Button who was languishing outside the points whilst his team mate was making podiums. Possibly that, along with Dennis' ' point making moment with the Spa wing, lost the Constuctors championship, lost the drivers championship, lost the lead driver Hamilton, lost the lead engineer Lowe, and maybe contributed to the engine switch. Whitmarsh ran into hiding and Button would have been out as well had Dennis had his way, but internal wranglings at Mclaren meant he didn't get his way and Button remained. Dennis now has his way so expect to see Button out and Mags or Vandoorne in alongside Alonso next year. But the damage has been done and the chassis remains dubious. I don't expect these observations to be any more popular now that everything's come out in the wash than it was before the washing cycle began, but hey ho.

And the Honda engine is not where it was expected to be. They started a year behind, more really when you think how soon the other teams, particularly MERC, started on the new engines. Will they sort the engine? I don't know. I'm nowhere near technical enough to know that answer. So we have the chasis dept. blaming the engine and the engine dept. blaming the chassis. Personally I really really hope bithered departments sort it out andMclaren Honda produce a fast car ......and we once again see Slonso up against a fast Rookie in a decent car! Come on McLaren Honda!!!! Gedinthere!!!!!

 

[teabagyokel]

Poe's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RasputinLives - I'm assuming that you are not holding Martin Whitmarsh responsible for the catastrophic mismanagement of McLaren perpetrated by Martin Whitmarsh's successors.

 

[RasputinLives]

No I was being majorly sarcastic. How anyone can hold on to the Whitmarsh destroyed Mclaren theory since its got much much worse since he left I don't know.

 

[gethinceri]

Have a word with racecub then RasputinLives.

 

[Il_leone]

Where is Mr Arai saying Honda engine was much improved yet the practice times show Mclaren 17th and 18th

 

[The Artist.....]

McLaren are now just an embarrassment. Everyone seems to agree that the chassis is quite good (their corner exit speed is very good), but the engine is lacking in power- probably from the electronic systems! - from what I've been able two glean by reading between the lines, the MGU-K and the MGU-H are not harvesting energy quickly enough, and that their ERS generally does not provide the same additional power as the other teams- and are lacking in reliability.

It is possible that the engine is as powerful as the Ferrari- but only the ICE- it's all down to the ancillaries! Sadly, Arai doesn't seem to appreciate this!

 

[FB]

Monza could be even worse. On Sky they said the car was having to harvest energy on the Kemmel straight and there are even fewer places round Monza to charge the batteries.

 

[Il_leone]

This is getting really shocking and really fed up with the unacceptable performance from Mclaren and Honda.

Now there are rumours Button will be let go because apparently they can't afford his wages which rises from £8m to £12m. This would be a shameful and embarrassing way to leave F1 and he does not deserve ut

Embarrassing race for McLaren - Button


"We weren't recovering and deploying properly," said Button. "F1 cars aren't very quick without an electric motor. Losing 160-180 horsepower - it is quite embarrassing to be floating around the back.

"At least when those guys lapped me at the end I had a grandstand view of their fight."
------------------------------------------------
Listening to the post race analysis apparently someone within Honda (possibly Mr Arai) is banding about the Japanese culture that they always look to promote internally because they understand the culture (which is usually people are rewarded / promoted through loyalty years of service not by what they know and see).


Well everyone can see whatever Japanese approach Honda is taking on the F1 project - it is clearly not working and they need external people like Ross Brawn and give some fresh input into their disastrous venture so far.

It worked last time getting Ross Brawn involved so why not again?

 

[Il_leone]

F1 mid-season match up – Part 5 The Odd couple: McLaren vs Manor

 

[FB]

I don't believe Ron Dennis wouldn't have Ross Brawn in the team. It would be an admission of failure and his ego couldn't cope with that.