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.)

 

[Il_leone]

Yes but every race where Alonso is languishing and sounding annoyed is supposedly the ticking point for him to quit

 

[Il_leone]

a worrying note still for Mclaren is the Honda engine is still fuel inefficient and apparently having to save fuel during the race cost them 50 seconds in terms of pace

 

[Incubus]

Yeah I've seen those quotes from Bouiller. He was sort of implying the McLarens could have been fifty seconds or so up the road if it weren't for having had to save fuel throughout tyhe race and that the engine would be OK if it used up less fuel.

Which is a rather disingenuous thing to say really because we all know this generation of complex engine-mapping electronics and ERS the performance of each power unit isn't divided into specific areas of performance.
Under these regulations power, torque, driveability and fuel consumption are effectively all one and the same thing. Even though the Honda unit isn't as dismal as it was last year it's still nowhere near being competitive whichever way you look at it.

 

[Il_leone]

50 seconds of fuel saving is a massive gap which will really hurt Mclaren on power tracks

Not as horrendous as Canada but still Honda need to find significant performance gains..

 

[Kewee]

Alonso doesn't need to re-sign for 2017; he has a 3 year contract!

My mistake, I meant to say he would re-sign beyond 2017.

 

[Titch]

I don't think so.

 

[Grizzly]

Yeah I've seen those quotes from Bouiller. He was sort of implying the McLarens could have been fifty seconds or so up the road if it weren't for having had to save fuel throughout tyhe race and that the engine would be OK if it used up less fuel.

Which is a rather disingenuous thing to say really because we all know this generation of complex engine-mapping electronics and ERS the performance of each power unit isn't divided into specific areas of performance.
Under these regulations power, torque, driveability and fuel consumption are effectively all one and the same thing. Even though the Honda unit isn't as dismal as it was last year it's still nowhere near being competitive whichever way you look at it.

To expand on that, with these engines being direct injection, you can run them more lean without detonation/pre-detonation because you can put the fuel in later in the cycle. What Mercedes have been exploiting and Ferrari and Renault have been catching up on is a trade off between the ERS-H performance and the combustion engine performance (by deliberately causing compression ignition as opposed to spark ignition) and you can make significant fuel saving by doing so. Yes the combustion area has to be designed to cope and exploit such, but much of the development is in the systems, control and fuel to realise and exploit the potential. This is the big differentiator in economy. The physical ICE hardware that all the manufactures have come up with is pretty dam close I think.

Renault made a huge gain over the winter in this area (note the lack of development tokens used) developing their fuel, delivery, control systems etc.....

Honda have only just started exploring the technology, hence, however decent their ICE is, they are not / cannot yet save the fuel in this way and resort to more traditional methods like cylinder cutting and sadly in the case of this Sunday, turning the wick down.

 

[FB]

Who was the fuel supplier to Honda last time they were in F1? McLaren have insisted on using Mobil 1 and I think this slowed down Honda's engine development.

 

[Andyoak]

In some sort of date order...
Williams Honda was MOBIL
McLaren Honda was SHELL
BAR Honda was NIPPON MITSUBISHI OIL CORP
(Can't find what Honda Honda used but probably stuck with NMOC)

and now they're back with McLaren Honda using EXXON MOBIL... so plenty of experience together over the last 30 years.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Interesting that McLaren have chosen to run Vandoorne and Button at the post Spanish GP test. You would have thought that the team would have gone for Alonso if for no other reason than some good coverage and sponsorship work in Spain. Should we read anything into this?

 

[The Pits]

Yes, my conclusions below:

They want to complete a back to back test with JB vs Vandoorne, to see who should be in the car next season
They want to test Vandoorne and JB as they will be the McHonda drivers next year
They want to ensure that Vandoorne gets track time, as he will need to be able to provide great data from the sim next season.

So, in summary, erm, I don't have a clue, but it does seem curious!!

 

[RasputinLives]

Could it be they don't want to risk Alonso doing anything more in the car than he has to at the moment due to the fact he is healing from his injuries received in Australia?

 

[vintly]

Or Alonso can't be bothered

 

[Wombcat]

I don't think these test get so much coverage that it really makes a difference if they put Alonso or Vandoorne in the car.
These test are only interesting for people who follow F1 very closely. It's not like millions of people get to see the pictures of these test.

actually it might be that with Vandoorne they get more coverage in Belgium than with Alonso in Spain.

 

[cider_and_toast]

If Alonso's at the point where he can't be bothered to test then I would suggest he hangs up his helmet and gloves now. I doubt that's the case though.

I can understand the case for running Vandoorne as it not only meets the young driver requirement but also gives him valuable track time.

Maybe RasputinLives is right and they need to give Alonso plenty of time to fully recover from Australia. If that is the case though it does hark back to his cautiously long lay off after his testing crash in 2015.

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't think these test get so much coverage that it really makes a difference if they put Alonso or Vandoorne in the car.

I think the surprise is not regarding TV coverage but at Mclaren opting not to have Alonso in the car doing the feedback in order for them to develop it Which is really what the test is all about and really what Mclaren need to do more than most.

It could simply be that Buttons feedback is better. He has been at the team a while.

 

[Titch]

Alonso is very respectful of his Mum. Maybe she is adamant that he takes time to recover.

And why not.

 

[FB]

Maybe Fernando has lost his 6 tenths and needs a few more days to find them?

 

[Incubus]

At this point it should be noted that neithe Hamilton nor Bottas will take part in the Barcelona test either... maybe they're also about to retire after losing motivation?

 

[FB]

Lewis is already on record about not enjoying testing, not sure about Valerie.