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Shocker.
Well, not really, unfortunately...
Another engine change for McLaren!
Argh!
Oopsy...
I seem to have only bothered to read McLaren related posts for the past few months, partly because I'd love to see them win again but I can't help thinking that the current run of form is going to result in a huge falling out between McLaren, Honda and Alonso before too long. Alonso must be rueing that vacant seat at Merc.
The sensible thing to have done would have been to encourage Honda to invest in Manor prior to it's demise. Remember that Merc are benefitting from the on track testing of Mercedes GP, Williams and Force India with a huge combined mileage. Likewise, Renault have themselves, Red Bull and Toro Rosso dutifully lapping away to say nothing of Ferrari. There's very little that you can do to catch up, short of sending round a few NSX mule cars around Suzuka, but I'm not sure about the regs around engine testing.
McLaren are between a rock and a hard place. Without Honda they are screwed and with Honda they are screwed. No other engine options easily available and in a 10 year deal. Honda do have previous for walking away.
The big worry is why none of these issues showed up in the thousands of miles running the power units will have done on the dyno. If I was them I'd be calling Mario Illen and paying him what he wanted. He has helped Renault start getting its house in order.
McL can't go it without Honda at the moment as they need the money until they get some sponsorship, which of course they won't get without results or a name driver which is Alonso...
Honda will get there eventually (last year's engine was gradually getting there even with the development restrictions) but it looks like it's going to be a horrible start to the year.
Wonder if any of this rubs off on McLaren's road car business? I'd imagine the F1 link isn't front and centre in their marketing at the moment... Or are they effectively totally separate now?
MrSalmon - MemberWonder if any of this rubs off on McLaren's road car business? I'd imagine the F1 link isn't front and centre in their marketing at the moment... Or are they effectively totally separate now?
Conversely, I wonder if the road car business is having a negative effect on the F1 side? When they dropped off in the nineties they attributed some of the blame to focusing on the F1 road car too much
Alonso must be rueing that vacant seat at Merc
Although I am sure he was approached I don't think that Alonso was ever the number one choice due to Bottas being
1) Cheaper
2) Fast enough
3) More likely to get on with Lewis and
4) Easier to remove from his current team due to the many links between Merc and Williams
Complete disaster for Mclaren - oh how the mighty have fallen. Hard to see a way back for them, as Honda are clearly pretty useless and McLaren themselves are a fair way off the pace also. Lack of sponsors means lack of investment and the downward spiral continues.
I thought the new McLaren livery reminded me of someting. It came to me today.
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They are no better off than last year. Or the year before. All the others seem to have made real progress.
I bet Ron is widdling himself.
Williams spent years in the wilderness before there recent return to form (and they still aren't really challenging for race wins)
McLaren's long term strategy and their acceptance that they will never win a title unless they are a full "works" team with access to their own engine is correct but they look like they have a very long road ahead of them to even challenge the mid tier Merc teams
They are no better off than last year. Or the year before. All the others seem to have made real progress.
Unfortunately I feel this may well be the case! I'm imagining Button is hitting the gym pretty hard right now in preparation lol
In fact I reckon he'll be driving the Tango coloured lemon by Bahrain 🙂
I'm imagining Button is hitting the gym pretty hard right now in preparation lol
funnily enough he posted selfie the other day 😉
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😆 😆
There's a big difference this year though - freedom to develop the engine. Catching up was really difficult coming in 2 or 3 years behind the other manufacturers. At least they're getting problems out of the way in the tests so that they can try and fix some of them for Melbourne but it looks like McL will be taking a lot of grid penalties this year right now...
The unfortunate thing for McLaren is while the reliability is so bad they cannot even evaluate the chassis so they don't know if the development of the chassis will be going in the right direction. Iirc they have been struggling to even go over 10 laps.
It's a very sorry state of affairs right now.
Brilliant ScottChegg. Oh blimey I can't believe I just got your name.
I'm hoping Williams have something as good as it seems in testing.
Honda are dangerously close to reproduce the Toyota thing. I wonder if engineering arrogance is playing a part here too ?
Honda are dangerously close to reproduce the Toyota thing. I wonder if engineering arrogance is playing a part here too ?
Of course, why else would anyone be stoopid enough to fund an F1 team! 🙂 That's why no-one is worried about peak oil, the entire sport is fueled by arrogance 😆
Anyone else old enough to remember the Honda 4 stroke GP bike when everyone else was running 2 strokes? Or their "we will never make a diesel engine" mantra?
Another bad start to the day for Alfonso!
ScottChegg - Member
I thought the new McLaren livery reminded me of someting. It came to me today.They are no better off than last year. Or the year before. All the others seem to have made real progress.
I bet Ron is widdling himself.
Still reminded of this
http://sniffpetrol.com/2015/06/08/concern-grows-for-whitmarsh/#.WL6vKDw8bYU
I've just been clearing out my bookmarks and found this link to a 2010 F1 testing gallery...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/f1photos/sets/72157623326645542/
...they look like F3 cars compared to the 2017 ones. It's amazing how quick you get used to the new fat tyres!
Some fancy floor detail on the Torro Rosso...
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Regarding the McHonda engine deal I came accross this from James Allen in his comments section...
Whitmarsh did this deal as I recall
Its not even as if poor Ron is getting the last laugh!
Alonso's thoughts on the new engine...
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128416/alonso-honda-has-no-power-no-reliability
Looks like he's in for more sun bathing this season.
Well perhaps Sauber will have some competition at the back then.
At least he's not letting it get him down.
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Mclaren has stopped out on the track.
Stopped twice I think.
edit:
11:54 Vandoorne's back out in the McLaren.
11:57 RED FLAG.
11:57 It's Vandoorne AGAIN in the McLaren.
🙄
Must be pretty demoralising for the factory at this point to be hitting so many snags
Good lap from Seb, 1m19.024
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128425/vettel-cruises-to-best-lap-of-testing-so-far
edit 2:
https://twitter.com/f1writers/status/839805385246658561
woah 😮 woah 😯 woah? 😡 ... wooah 🙁
Seems like Sebby was lifting here and there during his quick run too, adding up best sector times puts the real pace easily in the 18s, and they're probably not in full bore quali engine mode either.
McLaren. Utterly predictable. They've broken down AGAIN!
I can't decide if Ron would be finding this hysterical or is having a fit
All this hasn't suddenly happened since he left so I don't think he'll be too smug yet
They were at least making clear progress last year. Hopefully it's one step back (new engine) for two forward but...
Okay, so continuing my theme of only popping up to post something McLaren related, would McLaren be able to swap to 2016's (relatively) reliable power unit?
Does the abolition of the token system for 2017 mean that Honda could feasibly design a new engine for the latter part of the season?
Does the abolition of the token system for 2017 mean that Honda could feasibly design a new engine for the latter part of the season?
The 2017 engine is a new design anyway, so no, there'd be no time to design a new one.
They say they went as far as they could with the old engine and this new, Mercedes style engine, offers more scope for development.
It wasn't so long ago that people were questioning the wisdom of Lulu's move to Mercedes. Crazy to see such an epic reversal of fortune. 😯
Yep, it'll prob be a dismal first half to the season with some mediocre results in the second half for McLaren. Disappointing stuff!
Great update from the feasting live link.
10:58 Teams are supposed to be fine-tuning their cars at this stage. The only thing McLaren's fine-tuning is the Barcelona recovery procedure. 🙂
I'm not really bothered about McLaren as such but it's yet another wasted season for Alonso and maybe Vandoorne
So far thsi year Honda has less than 1/4 of the testing mileage of any other engine manufacturer - that's got to hinder the development (or error finding) process.
Though on the flip side, if they had supplied another team we'd now be getting twice as many red flags in testing.