For the last three seasons, McLaren have begun the year with a car that is not the dominant pace-setter. In 2009 they produced a horrendous machine that struggled at the back of the midfield to begin with. These poor starts coincide with McLarenâs deal to provide technical assistance to Force India. Whilst Force India have undoubtedly benefitted from this deal- they have leapt up from a back-row-0f-the-grid outfit to established midfielders- it seems McLaren have not. Yes, the Woking based team have vast resources and should be able to cope with a small partnership with another team, but surely this must have been a distraction. Personnel moved across to Force India and vital hours went into supporting the struggling Silverstone squad. Did this prevent McLaren from focusing on their new car? Well, it certainly did coincide with the design of the worst McLaren car (initially) since the turn of the century. Last month a technical partnership was announced between McLaren and Virgin, similar to the Force India deal. Once again personnel will move away from the team. Does this mean that once again McLaren will produce a dog of a car? Well, if theyâve learnt their lessons from last time, perhaps not- especially given that there were major regulation changes in 2009. But with the challenge of improving Virgin far greater than Force India, there will certainly be a distraction. The only other team with (recent) previous experience of a resources share is Red Bull during the early Toro Rosso days. Perhaps itâs no coincidence that since any design connection between the teams has ended, that Red Bull have developed into title challengers. Maybe itâs time McLaren followed their example, and focused on themselves and not others.
Perhaps we can encourage Red Bull to develop a partnership with HRT? Sounds like a good idea to me. A very interesting article, Stephen, but I hope your theory doesn't come true this time.
The bell rings true here Stephen. One must also consider the development of the road car. Surely there can be little doubt that the dedicated McLaren F1 team has been weakened by various diversions over the past few years…
Whilst I agree with the fact that by spreading engineering and design talent around, they have clearly weakened their core concern, has it been necessary? I imagine Mclaren to be one of the more well-off F1 teams, but have these sidelines been necessary to make ends meet? Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are all supported by extremely well-selling products, at least in part, whilst Mclaren do not have quite the same financial backing from within, and are much more reliant on sponsors. With the current economic climate, could it be Mclaren need the money these agreements bring in order to continue to be able to develop their car? Whilst I don't think Mclaren are short of the money necessary to cover the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA), to my knowledge (and I could be wrong) this does not cover advertising, corporate events, etc. Is it the case that unless Mclaren forge these relationships, money would have had to be diverted away from the race squad to pay for all the stuff that comes with F1. I could be barking up the wrong tree completely, and it's really only something someone with a knowledge of Mclaren's finances can answer, but an interesting thought. Another possibility is that Mclaren think they can use these partnerships to circumvent certain elements of the RRA, for potential long term gain?
My thoughts exactly. McLaren aren't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. The RRA restricts the amount of windtunnel and CFD hours the teams have, by pooling resources you can make those hours go further. We obviously don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but no doubt McLaren are providing technical assistance for a bit of 'illegal' wind tunnel time. Virgin are currently the only team who design their whole car through CFD, this will inevitably change next season when McLaren want payback for their technical know how. I wouldn't be surprised if Red Bull had a similar set up with Toro Rosso, and Ferrari with Sauber. But McLaren definitely do with Force India and, from next year, Virgin as well.
For McLaren to survive in this financial climate they must diversify they gain financial reward from allowing other teams to use their facilities and technologies I don't think it has any bearing on the performance of the race team, history tells us that teams have their ups and their downs, look at Ferrari in the early 90's or indeed McLaren in the same time period, or Williams who were dominating back then, where are they now?. It is just the nature of the sport, and it would be very very boring if it were any other way. Red Bulls dominance will not last on that point you can be absolutely sure it is an historical fact. Edit McLaren aren't exactly in a slump at the moment are they it is just that Red Bull are better, there is no shame in being the second best team on the grid.
I'd disagree on that one. Nobody in F1 is prepared to accept second, and in many teams second place is a complete failure. You can see that at the way Ferrari have acted in recent years, with knee jerk firings of people deemed responsible. For Mclaren and Ferrari, being beaten by Red Bull is terrible. Mclaren haven't one a constructors title for over a decade now if my memory serves correctly, and for the people involved, especially those who remember being at the top, that hurts. EDIT: Thanks to whichever mod cleaned up my off-topic stuff.
Second is fine for McLaren if they make a considerable amount of money, first is better but second is still a good sum of green for next year.
Well you cant blame Force India and Virgin (which is the feeling i get from just skimming it). Its Mclarens fault, and their car on average for the last 5 years has been the best. No times being out of the top 3 teams. And since 2009 have always been better than Ferrari, can even be argued the last time Ferrari were better was 2006. Its because of the new rules which suit Red Bull much better than everyone else. (Well Newey)
In my opinion part of the reason is Whitmarsh. Just my opinion and feel free to argue but I think he is completly useless - he spends a lot of his time complaining about the other teams and how red bull must be breaking the rules. Remember the front wing saga last year? May I point out that in the past 3 three years since he took over from Ron Dennis McLaren have failed to produce the best car on the grid and have won NO titles.
So all the teams suffer from Whitmarsh? Nobody have had the best car but Red Bull since Turkey '09. They shoud have won both titles that year but didnt due to unrealiable drivers.
I feel sorry for whitmarsh. The amount of stick he gets is unbelievable. Has it not occured to McLaren fans that it might be the drivers fault that they don't win anything. Management can only do so much.
Red Bull and Vettel are doing a better job than their opposition... That's about all their is to it. Whitmarsh has been in for some much undeserved flack when I truth, McLaren haven't been truly stellar in many years.
lets not forget that they can only spend so much of their vast resources, and you can't guarantee spending huge sums of money is gonna get you success, RBR, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren can't all be title contenders, and as far as I'm concerned the McLaren has been the better car for the majority of the season, Button bad luck, Hamilton foolishness and the teams inability to sort out their strategies has cost them dear, and nonne of this is effected by Force India, if anything it helps them as they probably have access to double the data in certain areas.
There have been times when the McLaren has had the upper hand, but overall the Red Bull has been a superior car in my opinion. I have to agree that without Hamiltons string of incidents and strange strategic descisions on both sides of the garage, we'd have actually had a title fight this year.
The major problem eith the mclaren of the last few years has been a lack of aerodynamic grip. They've had a car with good mechanical grip (which explains their strong showings in monaco), but the aero department can't match red bull.
I agree at the beginning of the season, and the anomaly of Silverstone and Valencia, but I've felt McLaren and their drivers have shot themselves in the foot a bit, and I think also people underestimate Vettels sheer speed, Webber is 2nd in the title simply because he's finished every race, he had his bad luck at the start of the season with mechanical problems when the RBR was easily the class of the field, and was able to get the carto a minimum 5th, since then he's qualified high and not had any mechanical problems and the McLaren that finishes with out mishap (a very rare occurance that only 1 of them has a mishap, usually it's both) generally finishes ahead. How many stop gos have McLaren had? how many strategy **** ups? How many points have each McLaren driver possibly lost due to it? 50? 100? that's a huge chunk, + it would also have taken points off Vettel and Webber. The title has gone now, unless the luck switches and Mercedes/Renault do something, although Renault probably would prefer RBR over anyone else to win due to the plaque they can put on their salesroom floors. Edit: and lets not forget the sheer luck of 'safety-car Seb' either.
Yep it's all whitmarsh's fault blimey what a fool I've been for the last few seasons sack the bastard, Jesus give me a break. you lot are talking like McLaren are being out qualified by HRT!!!!
