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.)

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Some of McLaren's engineers have been helping to design a new army vehicle, the Foxhound.

General Dynamics Land Systems: Force Protection Europe (GDLS:FPE), who produce Foxhound, have worked with engineers from the World Rally Championship, McLaren F1, Ricardo and BMW to incorporate Formula One racing technology so it has a top speed of 70mph (113km/h), but can still protect against improvised explosive devices thanks to its v-shaped hull.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EquipmentAndLogistics/FoxhoundArrivesInAfghanistan.htm

 

[FB]

That explains it then, they've been testing parts from that on Jenson's car.

 

[racecub]

In an effort to help Jenson's slide down the field Mclaren have decided its not his driving and its not the car updates, its his set up which has gone in the wrong direction. Paddy Lowe "Valencia will be about taking the best set-up from both sides, and running a much more converged set-up on both drivers in the direction we believe to be better."
I wonder how Lewis feels about that?I imagine he's quite happy with the set-up he's arrived at, its just won him a GP, why give him some of Button's which clearly isnt working. I cant see any good points of set-up from Jensons side. He cant make the car work , cant turn the tyres on and then eats the tyres. Lowe went on to say the cars have developed down different set up routes since the openning race and he wants them back closer together.....

so go with Lewis' set-up, it wins.

This was in this weeks autosport, an article entitled 'No quick fix for Button' written by Johnathan Noble.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I'd rather see one car in 1st and one car in 16th than Lewis and Jenson's cars finishing 7th and 8th respectively.

 

[racecub]

Exactly!!!

 

[The Pits]

I would hazard that whatever has been written, it is not as simple as sometimes believed.

I agree, that at the moment, it is Jenson with the issues, and these need to be sorted, however, this does not mean that there are not elements in Jensons set up which may benefit Lewis.

After all, there are a myriad of options in how the cars are set up, with millions of variations and permutations and if these can make Lewis's car faster, they would be daft not to.

That said, a sudden drop off would as ExtremeNinja has said be detrimental to all parties.

 

[Incubus]

I'd rather see one car in 1st and one car in 16th than both cars in 7th and 8th.

------------------------------------------------

/I'd hate to be pedantic but if you have both cars in 7th and 8th surely you end up with four cars?!

 

[teabagyokel]

I think, racecub, what that actually means when you get past the marketing speak, is that they'll set up Button's car like they set up Hamilton's.

 

[KekeTheKing]

So after 3 dreadful race weekends, their conclusion is that they should maybe try what Lewis has been doing. Brilliant!

Consider me skeptical that this hasn't been tried yet. I mean isn't that why they have their computers in the middle of the garage, to share info. And if they truly haven't set up the cars identically before, WHY NOT! Isn't that the first reaction to a thorough beating, "Well, what's he doing over there..."

 

[racecub]

Im fine with them using lewis' set up to help Button but it sounds like they want to put some midway set up on the cars when lewis already has a good set up. I hope you're right teabagyokel.

 

[downforce]

Good grief it better had be a case of Button adapting to Hamiltons set up and not pulling Hamilton away from a winning set up, but I won't hold my breath. That sounds like typical McLAren all over.

If we have a winning solution and a losing solution, we won't make the lsing solution copy the winning one we will mix them toghether and have 2 average solutions.

 

[The Artist.....]

What is all this blowing of hot-air and gnashing of teeth for?

1. McLaren have suggested that they are going to make small changes to Button's set up for Valencia to try and get to a better set up.
2. McLaren wouldn't want to use exactly the same set-up for Hamilton as was used in Montreal, so there will have to be changes there.
3. However, there has been no indication that McLaren want to move away from Hamilton's baseline set up!
4. Even if they were to be moving in this direction, it is perfectly plausible that there are aspects to the set-up that has been on Button's car that will make Hamilton's car EVEN FASTER!

Remember, in F1, if you stand still, you are going backwards!

 

[downforce]

3. However, there has been no indication that McLaren want to move away from Hamilton's baseline set up!

"more converged set-up on both drivers in the direction we believe to be better"

It sounds to me like that's exactly what they intend to do, converge Hamilton's winning set up with Button's losing one.

 

[tooncheese]

If the stories about Lewis not being very technically skilled are to be believed, a part of Lewis's set-up will have been developed by Jenson, he then went off-road for a bit presumably.

 

[racecub]

From the evidence before us i'd say the stories about lewis not being very technically skilled are wide of the mark. Im not saying he's an engineer but he clearly knows what he wants on that car to be as successful as he can with those tyres.

 

[The Pits]

downforce, one for you

http://www.mclaren-jobs.com/racing.php

Seriously though, I think the word set up is rather innocuous based on the raft of things that it covers. Bearing in mind also that the issue seems to be a very subtle one, it may be that due to the work which has gone into setting up jensons car has uncovered many things which might help Lewis be even faster.

I have no idea how McLaren go about finding the ideal settings for the cars, or adapting settings for new parts, or for each driver, nor what constitutes a similar set up, we talk about these things freely, with, I feel little understanding of what they actually mean.

I do not want to see Lewis move backwards. I do want to see Jenson move forwards. Therefore, based on my limited knowledge, I am in no position to question the approach being taken.

Also, not knowing what goes on behind closed doors, I am also not in a position to say whether what has happened so far has worked or not, or even how many different approaches they have taken.

What I can say, is that when in my work I am presented with an issue, I always look for the most obvious thing first, and work my way through a list, until I find all the issues, and correct them this takes time, and the team have limited track time to resolve these things. There is also a huge amount of data to sift through, but understanding what you are looking for is key.

So, to paraphrase, McLaren have highlighted an approach, I think it is a sensible approach, based on where they are, but I am no expert. I do not think anyone outside McLaren has sufficient information to determine how good or bad an idea this is, nor whether it will fix the issues, however, to automatically assume we understand and know what this means I feel is premature.

 

[The Pits]

racecub, the evidence before us would indicate that Lewis is able to drive the car much faster than Jenson at the moment. How this has come about is a different matter. That is absolutely not to cast aspersions on Lewis technical ability, simply an observation.

 

[racecub]

Well Pat Lowe is the person suggesting their set up has evolved in different directions Lowe " I would say they were more similar in Australia and there have been some decisions here and there that have moved them slightly further apart, But Canada was the most extreme"

Well it looks like the decisions on Lewis car were good decisions and the decisions on Jensons were bad . After all, the game is to win.

 

[The Pits]

racecub, that doesn't say how far apart they were, nor who made the decisions, also, it has been widely reported as to why Jensons car was set up differently at Canada.

You are correct about the net outcome.

 

[racecub]

I accept what you say there, jenson had extra issues because of the gearbox in Canada . Also, we dont know exactly who made the decision to make the changes on Lewis' car; but Lewis must have been involved, he must have been working with an engineer, saying what he wanted, saying what felt better, it wont have happend in his absence.Having made these decisons to set up lewis' car as they have and noted the succes, it seems bizarre that they now want to put a mixed setup on it with some of the less successful decisions that went onto buttons car.