I can't help but think McLaren are failing to learn from previous mistakes and this may very well cost them the championship if they don't sort it out. They started this season with the fastest car and walked to a victory in Australia and had the rain not come down in Malaysia they could have won there as well. Their decision not to run a 'platypus' nose seemed to be paying off and after Bahrain, Hamilton would have been top had it not been for pit stop problems and Button was only a few points behind. Now, from Spain onwards, McLaren adopted a version of the 'platypus' nose although it was a lot smoother, and while this alone isn't the reason for the slump I don't think it's helped.
Look at 2010. McLaren started that with one of the fastest cars and after Valencia, Hamilton and Button were first and second in the Championship with McLaren having a healthy lead in the Constructors championship. But around this time the EBD was surfacing with Red Bull utilising it to significantly improve their speed, it was a hot topic and was as controversial as the platypus nose but for different reasons and after Valencia, McLaren tried to adopt an EBD system on their car and by becoming almost pre-occupied with it, the cars performance suffered as they fell behind Red Bull and Ferrari. McLaren would only win one more race in the season and they missed out on both world championships.
While McLaren haven't focused on the development of the nose at the detriment of anything else, (at least I think not) I still think there is a sense of deja vu here. In both cases McLaren started with a very good base car, but got lost in development which wasn't helped by a controversial piece, in 2010 it was the EBD and this year it's the platypus nose. In a sense 2009 is similar but from the start due to the Double Decker issue and their focus on that in the early months self admittedly cost them a fair haul of points.
Really, are McLaren ignoring the things that made their car fast in the first place and should they focus on improving those things instead of trying to adopt things that make the opposition cars fast? Would McLaren be at a better point now if they'd kept the original nose and developed from there? Obviously there are numerous variables to consider especially the Pirelli tyres but it is certainly an interesting point. Certainly for some reason they have fallen behind in the development race in a very similar manner to 2010 and it could be down to similar reasons and I wonder if it'll be a topic of discussion before the German Grand Prix. Either way, McLaren have to find a way to gain performance again, and fast, otherwise their hopes of a Championship will vanish. You could argue that Button's hopes of a Championship are already over
Look at 2010. McLaren started that with one of the fastest cars and after Valencia, Hamilton and Button were first and second in the Championship with McLaren having a healthy lead in the Constructors championship. But around this time the EBD was surfacing with Red Bull utilising it to significantly improve their speed, it was a hot topic and was as controversial as the platypus nose but for different reasons and after Valencia, McLaren tried to adopt an EBD system on their car and by becoming almost pre-occupied with it, the cars performance suffered as they fell behind Red Bull and Ferrari. McLaren would only win one more race in the season and they missed out on both world championships.
While McLaren haven't focused on the development of the nose at the detriment of anything else, (at least I think not) I still think there is a sense of deja vu here. In both cases McLaren started with a very good base car, but got lost in development which wasn't helped by a controversial piece, in 2010 it was the EBD and this year it's the platypus nose. In a sense 2009 is similar but from the start due to the Double Decker issue and their focus on that in the early months self admittedly cost them a fair haul of points.
Really, are McLaren ignoring the things that made their car fast in the first place and should they focus on improving those things instead of trying to adopt things that make the opposition cars fast? Would McLaren be at a better point now if they'd kept the original nose and developed from there? Obviously there are numerous variables to consider especially the Pirelli tyres but it is certainly an interesting point. Certainly for some reason they have fallen behind in the development race in a very similar manner to 2010 and it could be down to similar reasons and I wonder if it'll be a topic of discussion before the German Grand Prix. Either way, McLaren have to find a way to gain performance again, and fast, otherwise their hopes of a Championship will vanish. You could argue that Button's hopes of a Championship are already over