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.)
 
Click to expand
cider_and_toast said:
Reminds me very much of Hakkinen's year on the bench when he moved to McLaren for 93 in anticipation that he would get a race seat only to find that Senna had signed on for another year and Michael Andretti would be in the other seat.
Click to expand
i remember that 1 from the beyond the grid series, he said he was told that when he signed the seat was his only if senna "retired" & he says that he signed because from everything he had heard inside & outside of mclaren, there was no chance senna was coming back. from everything he was saying it was clear he had no interest.

then Hakkinen couldnt believe when senna turned up
 
F1Brits_90 said:
i remember that 1 from the beyond the grid series, he said he was told that when he signed the seat was his only if senna "retired" & he says that he signed because from everything he had heard inside & outside of mclaren, there was no chance senna was coming back. from everything he was saying it was clear he had no interest.

then Hakkinen couldnt believe when senna turned up
Click to expand
I remember that season very well. There had been lots of rumours over the off-season. At one point, Senna had even considered signing for Jordan for 1993 (I've read that Eddie offered Senna 49% of the team for nothing).

For the first half of the season, Senna was racing on a race-by-race contract, in part because McLaren had only been able to gain access to the customer-spec Ford engines (rather than the works version that Benetton had). In spite of the fact that the engine always had to be two generations older than the factory Benetton team, Senna was able to keep pace.

Strangely, once he signed a contract for the whole season, the pace of McLaren began to drop off - at least until the last two races.

Sadly, the cost of keeping Senna on board was what caused several years in the doldrums for McLaren - they had invested so much money into his contracts, that they had not kept up to speed with aerodynamics and facilities.
 
The Artist..... said:
I remember that season very well. There had been lots of rumours over the off-season. At one point, Senna had even considered signing for Jordan for 1993 (I've read that Eddie offered Senna 49% of the team for nothing).

For the first half of the season, Senna was racing on a race-by-race contract, in part because McLaren had only been able to gain access to the customer-spec Ford engines (rather than the works version that Benetton had). In spite of the fact that the engine always had to be two generations older than the factory Benetton team, Senna was able to keep pace.

Strangely, once he signed a contract for the whole season, the pace of McLaren began to drop off - at least until the last two races.

Sadly, the cost of keeping Senna on board was what caused several years in the doldrums for McLaren - they had invested so much money into his contracts, that they had not kept up to speed with aerodynamics and facilities.
Click to expand

loved reading that, shocked that Senna would think of going to Jordan
 
The whole season centered around Williams. Senna wanted to go there but was blocked by Prost. Hakkinen then signed for Williams but Peter Collins at Lotus blocked the deal (long story but it involved a paperwork cock up by Williams), So he ended up at McLaren.
 
Hakkinen could have ended up at Ligier for 1993 as well but his manager, Keke Rosberg, didn't like the contract that was on offer.

The biggest loser in this was Lotus as I think Peter Collins managed the situation with Hakkinen awfully. Had Williams been able to negotiate with Lotus to offer some sort of recompense, that would have gone a long way for the beleaguered team.

In the end, the fact that Hakkinen stayed at McLaren through some rough years and ended up a double world champion shows he made the right move.

Hakkinen spent 5 seasons with McLaren between 93 and 97 during which time the results were mostly poor. He didn't achieve his first win until the last race of the 1997 season and that was only because Schumacher rammed Villeneuve and then later Villeneuve let both McLaren's through.

Compare that to Alonso's 5 seasons and Vettel's 6 seasons at Ferrari without world titles and McLaren must have had a reasonable amount of faith that Hakkinen was the right person for the job and the team was the right seat for Hakkinen.
 
I always thought Coulthard was very quick, certainly as quick as Hakkinen and quicker than both Hill and Villeneuve, the problem was he tended to suffer from brain fade or serious concentration loss in races ( spectactular accidents for no reason) which is probably why Williams dispensed with his services, when he managed to keep awake he was certainly equal to Hakkenin
 
Dartman i highly recommended the beyond the grid interview with coulthard. he will talk in detail about if senna had survived he wouldnt have been in F1 as he had no money & was struggling to raise funds for F3000

how williams wanted to keep him. but on safe afternoon. McLaren offered him a multi yr deal he said thanks for the offer but i got to see Williams for the renewal today. they offered him a 1 yr deal less money. declined it & rang mclaren straight away. basically
"is the deal still on the table"
"yes"
"ill sign"

also said when he was sat on grid in 96 in 12th with car he couldve been in on pole, realised his grave error & realised from that day always place speed over money in any contract negotiation

 
I was delighted when Coulthard signed for McLaren as it gave Hill a real shot at the title.

After 94, Hill spent most of 95 struggling to beat Schumacher in his own head as well as on the track. Coulthard had a strong second half of that season and would have probably been pushing Hill all the way for the title in 96.

Having said that, I'm not saying Coulthard is wrong but, it would seem odd with Hill's contract up at the end of 96, Williams would consider replacing both drivers at that time. With Coulthard having won a race in his debut season and with Hill much older and (as was eventually the case) the more likely to move on, signing Coulthard in a one year deal makes little sense.
 
That doesn't contradict my view he was a very quick but flawed driver, unlike others who you don't know which will turn up, i.e Bottas, he always turned up it was the mid to end sections of races he had problems with:D
 
The series where Senna kept arriving at the "cir-quit", and then the mechanics started calling it the "cir-quit"
 

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