The question now of course is can Honda deliver a power unit in its first year back that can rival Mercedes? It is a big ask! I didn't realise until watching Ted Kravitz video this week that Mercedes customer teams are NOT allowed to push to the same levels on the engine modes as the works team- what a sporting farce!! See 3:10 Ted Kravitz: What makes the W05 so dominant? [video]http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/f1/9573989/ted's-best-car[/video]
The bigger question should be, Can McLaren build a car to utilize it if Honda do produce a great engine? They were dire with easily the best engine this season.
See above re: whether it REALLY was the best engine, or was it a very good engine but nowhere near as well utilised as the works team? For those of you wantying to watch...6pm RIGHT Now SkySports F1 - Full McLaren press conference.
So, what would the outcome now be if Jenson beats Alonso next season, not impossible tho likely less than 50/50. Jenson is going to train like no ones business this winter, as he did the winter Lewis left thinking he would have a winning car and a shot at the WDC. I reckon JB will be super motivated to challenge Alonso, it would please me if he beat him. Lewis challenge Alonso and Jenson challenged Lewis so if he keeps his form it could be a fun moment, or a dud if there are reliability problems next year. Fingers crossed for a scrap.
Its probably a 1 year deal with an option for a second. Which its worth noting is the same contract he had this year (i think the option expired in the autumn). Still, it does show they aren't explicitly planing to bring Kevin back for 2016.
I don't think Ron knows what an order of magnitude is... Happy with the decision, I think it's the right one. Hopefully KMag can do some racing alongside his test-driver status in another formula, it was his race-craft not pace that was his main weakness for me, and he won't improve that from the sidelines. And I know what picture was posted without clicking it.
Well I hope the car and engine package is as good as the team driver potential, Alonso and Button in the same team, could be interesting. Pleased Jenson has a decent 2015 drive, perhaps the Honda engine will be the best on the grid, I've got one in my lawnmower, it never fails.
I think there will be a lot of changes at the end of next season in relation to driver contracts, Kimi, Bottas, Massa and Hulk I think are all out of contract or have an option, and Red a Bull stable (specifically Kyvat) will be under a lot if pressure.
Glad McLaren finally made the right decision. Amongst all the press releases, i found the line about KMag very interesting "Internal data suggests that over a single lap, KMag is marginally quicker". This'll be the KMag that when he was handed a race drive was heralded as being lightning quick over a single lap? the one that was purposefully brought in to give Jenson the hurry up speed wise because apparently Perez couldn't? so does that mean Button is actually quicker than the initially thought (considering pure one lap pace is his biggest weakness and he's seemingly more or less bang on the pace still of a speed demon), or KMag just isn't quite as fundamentally quick as they hoped he would be? Regardless, this is the correct choice. Harsh on KMag but F1 is a harsh world. Sure it won't be the last we see of him, far from it.
KMag is apparently going to race in Super GT next season, which for those who've not heard of it, is a Japanese equivalent to DTM (same regs). This season featured the likes of Liuzzi and Nakajima, as wel as James Rossiter and Oliver Jarvis.
Well I'm not going to lie, I am surprised that McLaren went for Button! This is entirely as it is the obvious choice which is a word that seemed to scare McLaren. Very happy as I both like McLaren and Button please log in to view this image
Yes, it's very good but is it a rom-com or a horror-in-disguise? Actually though, I watched a video interview with Alonso yesterday and I was struck by how genuinely happy and relaxed he seemed. Still, hard not to feel better after his last year at Ferrari
The question in my mind since all of this was first suggested is how the engineers etc at the team feel about Alonso coming back. Ron has spoken about about how much negativity in the team was caused by Alonso in 2007 so I hope they don't hold grudges. Mind you, if Ron can let it go then I guess they can.
Theyll kind of have to otherwise Ron will show them the door. Can't be going around sabeutaging who is widely regarded as the best driver of recent times haha.
