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]

Why didn't they test the parts on the car of the driver who will actually get to use them next year?

That way they could have told Button what the parts were so he could provide better feedback.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Yep. It wouldn't be a story or point of interest, otherwise. "Odd" is quite an apt descriptor of the scenario.

 

[Viscount]

Brogan All we know for a fact is that Sam Michael said they were testing parts for 2013, whether they were exclusively on Hamilton's car, Button's car or on both cars we have no idea.

 

[Brogan]

Just on Hamilton's based on further reading.
McLaren apparently operate a rotation system in this respect.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Back to back between sessions or race weekend to race weekend?

 

[Brogan]

That much isn't clear.

When asked by AUTOSPORT whether McLaren felt any need to be "careful" with Hamilton's role in 2013 component testing, Michael said that Hamilton and Jenson Button were still on a standard rotation system.

"In actual fact, being open, it was Lewis who did all the testing this morning as we alternate between drivers," Michael said.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103742

 

[teabagyokel]

If Hamilton is at any point testing 2013-spec parts at a time when Button is not, then the person who made that decision is a credulous cretin.

 

[Brogan]

I think it just reaffirms everything which is wrong with McLaren and how they operate.

 

[racecub]

Maybe they don't want to jeopardise Buttons race so are leaving the testing to Hamilton. It's still important for them to have Button finish as high as possible (insert shuffling off smilie here). They'd getaway with it, it would all go over Hamiltons head, he just wants to race the car,

 

[Josh]

Uh, I think you're slightly underestimating his intelligence there racecub.

 

[racecub]

Yeah maybe

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Here is they any truth in the rumour I've heard this week that Mclaren will be trading Mercedes engines for Honda one's in 2014?

 

[Kewee]

The commentary on Sky during 2nd practice, quoting Gary Anderson I think though I stand to be corrected, said Hamilton doesn't give the team consistent lap times which make it very difficult to read developments and car set up. Hopeless was the word he used.

 

[The Artist.....]

Kewee

That's very much like Nigel Mansell used to - whatever happened, when involved in testing, he would go balls out for a lap to try and break the lap record, then park the car and metaphorically go to the pub!

 

[Bill Boddy]

It is interesting tha Sky should broadcast this. Gary Anderson is actually one of the BBC F1 team and what he said on TV was:

"Just watching Lewis Hamilton, you want to do consistent lap times but he is up and down like and yoyo so it is very difficult for his team to read anything. He needs to pay more attention to the job. You can't do that in a race, consistency is really important."

This is taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20081242

 

[Brogan]

Maybe he was doing it on purpose


(That's a tongue-in-cheek comment before it gets jumped on and debated to death...)

 

[Kewee]

Bill Boddy......Thanks for posting that Bill. Although Gary Anderson writes for the BBC when it comes to commentary he is clearly a freelancer. Sky have been using him as their pit lane technical adviser for as long as I can remember. The posting you made off the BBC site is significantly edited. The conversation lasted for some time and when he was commenting on trying to gather information from upgrades to help with their car set up, from Lewis's inconsistent lap times, I can assure you he used the phrase "it's hopeless". Incidentally I checked my tape and it was Gary Anderson I was quoting.

 

[racecub]

It is interesting tha Sky should broadcast this. Gary Anderson is actually one of the BBC F1 team and what he said on TV was:

"Just watching Lewis Hamilton, you want to do consistent lap times but he is up and down like and yoyo so it is very difficult for his team to read anything. He needs to pay more attention to the job. You can't do that in a race, consistency is really important."

This is taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20081242

I was watching the p2 updates come in on the computer, because I couldn't access sky. I saw that comment from Anderson. did you see the next update? less than a minute later? It was from Lewis' engineer and said. Your pace is great for this fuel level. Don't 'experts' make themselves look stupid sometimes.

 

[Kewee]

racecub.......If you look at the times on screen you'll find there was 10 minutes between these two comments. not one minute.
McLaren I'm sure were playing mind games with their message to Hamilton regarding his lap times, Alonso was lapping consistently faster than both Red Bulls and Hamilton at the time (all on race fuel). The commentators picked up on it immediately.
This was not intended to be a Lewis knocking posting. Gary Anderson was simply picking up on something most know, the importance of putting in consistent times, lap after lap after lap. A good development driver will string together 6 to 10 laps that will be within thousandths of a second per sector and entire laps varying by hundredths. Often during practice we hear Lewis on the radio wanting to know the fastest lap times and where he's loosing time. Is that valid when your trying to test upgrades or setting up a car? Gary Anderson is saying consistent lap times are far more useful for data gathering and most would agree.

 

[Viscount]

Kewee Can't disagree with that. All I will say is when you look at both Lewis and Jenson's times, it just seems like slower cars interrupted their longer runs rather than a lack of consistent pace