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.)

 

[Viscount]

Well McLaren's current contract ends 2015 and if Honda were returning in time for 2014 surely they would have announced it by now. I do think Honda will return at some point though.

I doubt Lewis will be that bothered apart from perhaps the sentimental value of driving a McLaren-Honda.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don't believe Sam Michael is an asset to the McLaren team..

 

[Viscount]

Why's that?

 

[Mephistopheles]

I just don't rate him very highly...

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

Have you asked her yet?

The Judge said I musn't go with in 1 mile of her. I think the incident with the raincoat did for me, unfortunately.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

You stole her raincoat?!

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

 

[FB]

Maybe the Mc in McLaren is an abbreviation of mediocre?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Wow. This is going to set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Sam Michael has told the media that there are development parts for next year on his car for Friday practice. Lewis was asked about this and knew nothing about it as the team have kept in in the dark given he's off to Mercedes. That is absolutely fascinating.

Also, Lewis seen standing outside the Red Bull garage watching their cars leaving the garage and trying to get a good peak at their various bits and pieces.

The F1 show is very interesting today. I often miss it, but I'm sitting in front of the TV with tonsillitis.

 

[Vortex]

Gardening leave.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Yep. An odd phrase to use as generally when you are on gardening leave, you are paid not to turn up. Kimi Raikkonen's contract buyout was more akin to gardening leave. McLaren have stated that they are still fighting for the championships and given that it will be Jenson driving the car next year and that he is a long way out of the reckoning, you would have thought they'd have him running the parts exclusively.

 

[Viscount]

I think it's a good way to manage the situation. Eventhough he didn't know about the new parts, Lewis would still be giving feedback as to how the car is behaving, vocally and through his telemetry so McLaren are still able to use both drivers to evaluate parts and Hamilton doesn't have any info to take to Mercedes

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I do agree with that, although it's quite a precarious balancing act. Especially when their leading driver is expecting that he is setting up a car for the race weekend. Imagine Saturday morning Lewis goes out and says, "Wow guys, what happened? It feels like a different car. It was great yesterday. What's changed?". Engineer responds with "Nothing you need to know about Lewis".

 

[Brogan]

Considering the practice sessions are vital in setting up the car for the race, this speaks volumes.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Hamilton looked absolutely dumb-founded when questioned about it by the reporter.

 

[Viscount]

Just watched that part of the F1 Show and I think Hamilton knew he was testing some things, he just had no idea that they were experimental parts for 2013. He said pretty much the same thing in that Sky interview as he did in an interview posted on the official F1 site.
"Well, we do bring small updates to every race, or at least modifications that we will be testing on the Fridays to see if they work."

Teams always use FP1 to test parts so I doubt his opportunity to set up the car has been affected much more than ony other race weekend.

 

[Brogan]

Teams always use FP1 to test parts

Parts which are being evaluated for use during the race or later in the season.

Not for next season.

 

[Viscount]

Mercedes tested their DDRS at Suzuka last year. Apart from exterior upgrades we never really know what teams test unless they tell the press.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Interestingly, Hamilton is happy with the race pace whilst Button is concerned about race pace. Who knows what that means and whether they are running the same spec. I won't speculate on that though.

 

[Viscount]

I do find it odd though that Sam Michael was happy to tell journalists about testing the upgrades if they were keeping it a secret from Hamilton.