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.)

 

[RasputinLives]

Are they lining him up for a shock entry to F1 if Lewis jumps ship? Or will he be the next Gary Paffett. Only time will tell.

 

[teabagyokel]

Current TMP:

 

[Josh]

Is red last year?

 

[teabagyokel]

Red are Fence players.

 

[gethinceri]

Philistines!

 

[Greenlantern101]

from autosport.


Sebastian Vettel says he is impressed by long run pace of new McLaren Formula 1 car

By Simon Strang Tuesday, February 21st 2012, 19:41 GMT

Sebastian Vettel has singled out McLaren as the rival team that he thinks is in the best shape at the start of the second pre-season test at Barcelona in Spain.
The double world champion made clear that while it is still too early to divine a pecking order from what had taken place so far in testing, he felt that McLaren appeared to have got an early handle on its MP4-27.
"I think McLaren looked very strong today," Vettel told reporters after ending the session fastest of all with a time of 1m23.265s - some 0.3s quicker than Hamilton managed. "For the rest it is too early.
"I haven't seen all the lap times yet, I have only had a couple of looks on the long runs that Lewis did today – they seemed to be quite interesting.
"At this stage we are not really talking about the championship for sure. I don't think there is anybody here trying to do worse than last year, so we are trying to do what we did last year, but it's a long way from now."
When asked about whether he had a car to challenge for a third title, he added: "To be honest I haven't seen much of other cars on the track.
"Obviously I can judge for myself that the feeling [on my car] is fine but I don't know whether that is good enough or not. I think the McLaren looks quite competitive. I think they didn't go for one lap at all but they did long runs etcetera and they looked fairly competitive, so I think they will be strong straight from the beginning of the season.
"I think we saw in Jerez Lotus was quite a surprise, whether they can keep it up or not, I don't know. Today they didn't run much.
"Ferrari is a bit of a secret at this stage and nobody knows whether they are really good or really bad – and I don't know what other people think about us, so we will have to wait and see."

 

[downforce]

He may just be diverting pressure away from himself

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Tom Blomqvist had joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme.

http://www.mclaren.com/page/blomqvist-joins-mclaren-young-driver-programme

 

[RasputinLives]

Have to say that since the arrival of Lewis I've not rated any of the young drivers in Mclaren's programme but having seen son of Stig - Tom Blomqvist race in Formula Renault UK I have to say he looks like a pretty good prospect as long as he keeps his eye in!

 

[FB]

Now here's an interesting thing in Mclaren's top 50 driver Kimi Raikkonen comes in at No.15 and Gerhard Berger at No.14. The criteria they are judged on is "performance whilst driving for Mclaren" - can anyone explain that then?

Oh, and Mark Blundell is placed higher than Villeneuve and Piquet Now I know they only ever drove once for Mclaren but that should be enough to rank them higher the old cucumber down the trousers man.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

BBC Sport's chief F1 writer Andrew Benson
"It may only be testing, but the team garages are as spotless as on race weekends. After Lewis Hamilton laid down strips of rubber on the painted floor as he pulled out of the garage, the McLaren mechanics were down on their hands and knees with cleaner and towels, scrubbing off the black marks."

Who said Ron Dennis had no involvement in the F1 side of McLaren anymore

 

[Slyboogy]

Now here's an interesting thing in Mclaren's top 50 driver Kimi Raikkonen comes in at No.15 and Gerhard Berger at No.14. The criteria they are judged on is "performance whilst driving for Mclaren" - can anyone explain that then?

Oh, and Mark Blundell is placed higher than Villeneuve and Piquet Now I know they only ever drove once for Mclaren but that should be enough to rank them higher the old cucumber down the trousers man.

De La Rosa is ranked very highly in the list too

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Raikkonen being only 15th on McLaren's best 50 is ridiculous. He's joint 6th in terms of wins for McLaren and arguably should have had 2 WDCs during his stint with them but was let down by machinery.

 

[racecub]

Whitmarsh has been talking about changes to the McLaren nose He says this it is not an admission that their concept is wrong, but is to maximise rear downforce. "We removed the under-nose splitter, which probably enhabces the efficiency of the rear end. If we get a lot of downforce at the rear end then we may go back the other way, but where we are in the development cycle suggests this route is beneficial"
Now I know Im a little paranoid when it comes to Whitmarsh, and my technical knowledge is not the greatest. So please can someone convince me that this is not moving the car massively into Buttons territory and away from what Lewis likes? Believe me, I would like to be wrong in my thoughts.

 

[Slyboogy]

I'm not a technical man either...but better downforce at the rear will definitely help both drivers.

 

[Porceliamone]

Don't panic. As Sly says, more downforce will be beneficial to both drivers. Just because LH prefers a twitchier rear end or more oversteer doesn't mean they can't set up his car that way, to an extent.

 

[racecub]

Phew. Hope you're both right!!

 

[sushifiesta]

Well, presumably it will mean sacrificing downforce at the front for more downforce at the back, otherwise what was the point of the splitter in the first place? From that I guess you could say that the car will move more towards Button's style, as less front grip makes the car more prone to understeer than oversteer.

In reality, maybe they just had too much front grip and making this change will result in a better balanced car. Or perhaps they've done it because of what the circuit is like. Who knows, not me!

 

[racecub]

Panicing again now!!

 

[The Pits]

Front downforce should not be affected, as the change is behind the front wing. My guess is that they have done some sums on the way the air is channelled to the rear of the car, and with the sidepod changes from last year, the solution they had may not have been optimum

I would not expect a reduction in downforce in a fundamental way in order to improve balance, as this would indicate serious issues, and the majority of balance issues can be dealt with through trim changes.

One thing Lewis has said before is that the McLaren has never really had a planted rear end, and this is something he should approve of.