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:
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.)
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.
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.)
And it didn't seem to me he was really gaining in the latter stages either, I remember Hamilton lapping 6 tenths in one lap but the gap never got under 3.5 sec.
