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.)

 

[Brogan]

It has already been corrected:

I think Button's problems are revealing an issue with the car. It is not as obvious with Hamilton because he is better at driving around problems and adapting his style, but at Silverstone it affected him, too.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Beat you to it Brogan. I could do this F1 pundit job, thingy. It's rare they say anything that I haven't figured out for myself.

 

[Jos the Boss]

http://www.formula1onlive.com/2012/07/coca-cola-could-become-to-make-new.html
Coca-Cola Mclaren Mercedes? Has a ring to it, but it reminds me of another fizzy drink company!

 

[ExtremeNinja]

How a professional website can publish news which has been churned through Google translate astonishes me!

Coke Zero livery would look cool.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

http://www.formula1onlive.com/2012/07/episode-01-mclaren-animation-tooned.html

Would have been more realistic if at 2:13 he'd replied "i've got no grip!!!!!!", and then the half-tightened wheel fell off as he was ploughed into by a wayward Williams.

 

[Mephistopheles]

McLaren are doing pit stops in less than 3 seconds now!! It takes me longer than that to get up out of my chair......

 

[Jos the Boss]

The Mclaren stops are super impressive now, but I just keep expecting slow stops from them!

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Let's hope they can exceed the expectations of their fans in other areas too.

 

[Brogan]

Such a shame there isn't a pit stop championship.

Saying that, they'd probably still fuck up and lose that too.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Harsh

 

[F1ang-o]

One race does not a season make.....or summat like that....

 

[Brogan]

Harsh

But fair

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I set you up for that one.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Such cruel irony for the Macca boys that their fastest pit stops came during the meeting at which their car was at its slowest. Just one of those sub 3 second stops in a previous round would have netted a nice clutch of points. Oh well...

On to Germany, that's where the resurgence started in 2009. Lewis would have led into the first corner but Webber clipped his tire and gave him a puncture. These "visual" updates better be good!

 

[The Pits]

It sounds like the updates will make the car look better....

 

[KekeTheKing]

I couldn't care less about the looks at this point The Pits. Gimme some pace

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

I still believe that Silverstone was a little bit of an abomination... methinks the extreme swing from full wet / red flagged sessions to a completely dry fairly warm race is just something the McLaren cannot handle (same with the Mercedes)... the Ferrari, RBR and Lotus seemed to have a more robust "template" to leverage off...

Germany...I am expecting McLaren (LH at least) to be duking it out for a top 4 grid slot...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well Lewis definitely isn't happy with the car

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/7883848/Hamilton-McLaren-in-need-of-a-redesign

 

[Brogan]

Perhaps McLaren should concentrate on racing instead of this nonsense?

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/07/mclaren-look-to-broaden-appeal-with-launch-of-animation-arm/

 

[KekeTheKing]

I can't imagine anyone involved with building the actual race cars was involved in that venture. Lewis and JB obviously did the voice overs, but that should hardly affect their preparation for a GP.

There are a litany of reasons that McLaren have fallen to 4th in the standings, I wouldn't point to "Tooned" as one of them.