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]

Bill Boddy Spinodontosaurus Kimi is ahead of Vettel this year more than being rather lucky with some duffed Ferrari strategy

On pure pace Kimi is nowhere near Vettel one lap or race pace so don't be surprised if Kimi is thrashed by Vettel by the end of the season

 

[F1Brits_90]

Was today 1 of the lowest point of mclaren honda era after button being out qualified by both manors

 

[Bill Boddy]

The strategy was poor, waiting until late on a circuit where they had seen the number of problems that were occurring. Alonso looked as though he either got caught in traffic or didn't get the tyres up to temperature every try.

 

[Road of Bones]

I turned the TV off in disgust after Q1.

 

[FB]

Was today 1 of the lowest point of mclaren honda era after button being out qualified by both manors

I think the race dropped it even lower down the dung heap.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Reading back through those last few comments just shows how far McLaren have improved. This weekend they were consistently in front of Toro Rosso, Force India and Williams. We will have to see what happens in Germany but their outlook is brighter.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

 

[RasputinLives]

I expect a return to the back come Germany though

 

[cider_and_toast]

At least McLaren are starting to look a little competitive on one type of circuit now. That's better than hopeless everywhere.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I don't think that they will return to the back but suspect that there may be a tight fight with the other midfield teams. This is still a big improvement from the beginning of the season.

 

[FB]

Mercedes and McLaren are getting litigious over an engineer. McLaren in legal dispute with Mercedes over engineer

 

[F1Brits_90]

Any chance of Mclaren being Button & Vandoorne in 2017. Because they could become abit Sick of alonso moaning & retirement threats

 

[The Pits]

No.

 

[F1Brits_90]

No.

Always good to get a definite answer

 

[Olivier]

Unless Alonso wants out ...

 

[Bill Boddy]

After today Alonso will be a bit happier and looking forward to short straight races.

 

[Incubus]

Actually one thing I found almost impressive was the McLaren really did look quite fast in the fast bends in sector 2.

The main reason the Williams pair on the same tyres couldn't get close enough to attack on the Kemmel straight was that Alonso was getting away from them in the fast bends, particularly at Pouhon and the esses that followed.

Might be down to different downforce settings but still, the McLaren now looks like a pretty good car on high and medium speed corners...

 

[Kewee]

McLaren have always been held back by under performing power units, at last they can use and further develop their aero package which most have said is very very good. They've needed the power unit to give them a level of performance to enable aerodynamics to do their job, it's starting to come together for them.

 

[RasputinLives]

Whilst his drive was awesome the most impressive thing I saw Alonso do all day was walk along directly behind Nico Rosbergs car when they wheeled it to the front of the grid before the start. He was walking away from his own car and was clearly and obviously just checking out the rear of the Merc car close up to report back. You could even see him peering underneath until Brundle distracted him for an interview.

Top class spy work Fernando.

 

[teabagyokel]

Like Red Bull, we await Singapore and Sepang* coming up to see just how quick they are. I suspect that real progress will have been made by both of those teams, thus setting up a great 2017 unless they change all the rules.

*Doesn't it feel a little weird that we haven't had Sepang yet?

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

I actually remember Malaysia being one of McLaren's strongest races last year despite it being so early in the season. Alonso was running 9th prior to hitting reliability problems and was keeping pace with the Williams, Red Bulls and Toro Rossos. I will definitely be interested to see how they do this year.