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
McLaren TOLD Lewis it would be just as quick in quali....he (trusted) believed them & made a decision based on this..?
It was not as quick.......................and this was the reason for niave behaviour....sending tweets.....to explain why he chose the old wing...
 
F1ang-o what he said was that having a clear number one was the best way to win wdc, but that he was glad they did not do that at McLaren

I am sure there would be better ways of Lewis telling people what was going on than tweeting confidential data. Maybe telling people straight, rather than passing on information regarding your team mate may have been less likely to cause a stir? No, probably not.

As for Belgium, as always set up is chosen in consultation, the consultation would never have come about if he was not unhappy with the new wing. The alternative was the old wing. It didn't work out. Deal with it. I seem to recall another driver having issues with set up early In the yeR, and getting pilloried for it. But this is different, clearly.
 
The Pits
Lewis was niave......
But ....he soon sorted out issues.........in a few days..... hasn't taken months of McLaren time..
Still it was Jenson 50th drive for McLaren....& he finally put it on pole...well done to all concerned
 
JB took time to complete his his contract last year, didn't sign until end of November?
Whose fault was that, why was he not repeatedly questioned about what he was doing, or where he was going

Mind games been part of F1 for some time.

I have an elderly relative who competed in the TT races in the 50s, only in junior races...but he says a lot of the so called strategy of today............in his opinion is cheating.
 
Button and Hamilton have always publicly stated that they don't mix outside of work. They never have and therefore I'm not sure if the restaurant situation wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago. Their families/friends never mix either, even when in the motorhome watching the race.
 
Hamberg said:
Button and Hamilton have always publicly stated that they don't mix outside of work. They never have and therefore I'm not sure if the restaurant situation wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago. Their families/friends never mix either, even when in the motorhome watching the race.
Click to expand
I guess it would be pretty difficult to mix socially when you live in different countries and race weekends are not really a social occasions for these guys.

Jenson's got the better looking bird though...

I don't know why I made that last comment...:whistle:
 
F1ang-o said:
JB took time to complete his his contract last year, didn't sign until end of November?
Whose fault was that, why was he not repeatedly questioned about what he was doing, or where he was going
Click to expand

ermmmm......he was. There were all sorts of stories linking him to Ferrari and Merc last year - even some for Williams I seem to remember.

Now if Jenson has appeared to fall out with the team by releasing inside team info on Twitter then I sure the speculation would have been even wilder. He didn't though.
 
RasputinLives said:
ermmmm......he was. There were all sorts of stories linking him to Ferrari and Merc last year - even some for Williams I seem to remember.

Now if Jenson has appeared to fall out with the team by releasing inside team info on Twitter then I sure the speculation would have been even wilder. He didn't though.
Click to expand

If Jenson had been getting the No2 treatment that IMO Lewis has,
then me-thinks the ex F1 driver on his management company books,
would have been whinging about it on the Beeb.
I wonder if DC gets a discount on his fees?
As I said on an earlier post...he trusted his team...who told him that the old wing would be just as quick in quali, which of course it wasn't & the bit of info...that is of no use to anyone else...proved his point.
Still...it was 3 years since JB had put his car on pole. And Spa was his 50th drive for McLaren.
What does David Coulthard call JB on TV..? Oh yeah.....Baby Button.......

If McLaren haven't got a plan B.....it looks like someone has.
 
I always find your constant dissing of DC a bit odd as Lewis himself has nothing but praise for him - indeed I'm sure there was something in his book about not being able to meet a nicer guy than DC and how ge'll never forget how DC treated him as an equal when he was a youngster hanging around in the Mclaren garage.

Quote number 2 treatment all you want and unfair this and unfair that - The fact is that Lewis published sensative company information to the public and you can;t make an excuse for that. You can claim he was naive or pushed etc etc but the fact remains in any other job that is an instant sackable offence - so why you would think it was odd that people would speculate over Lewis annoying the team or that he was going somewhere else is beyond me Ang.

Personally I hope he does leave Mclaren just so I don't have to read about how much they mis-treat this driver they've sponsored and groomed through out his entire career before in an unprecendented move for the team giving him a race seat as a rookie before champion him 6 seasons and uping his contact so he's paid one of the biggest wages in the sport.
 

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