No wonder Lewis Hamilton is contemplating a move away from McLaren. He has had a horrible season at the team and McLarenâs disastrous Silverstone showing compounded this. It all started with the poor decision in qualifying to run old tyres on the opening run despite the huge likeliness of rain. This put him on the back foot before the race even began with 10th place on the grid. However, the opening part of the race was an entirely different story- a much improved Lewis ran as high as second before another mistake by his team ruined his race. Yes, all the teams underfuel their cars to try and gain a slight advantage, but several laps of fuel-saving suggest a much greater mistake. Button isnât immune from these poor McLaren errors either. The pitstop at Silverstone was every Chief Mechanicâs worst nightmare and also think back to Monaco last year where the team incredibly left a radiator-cover on which caused an engine failure. In McLarenâs championship winning days this kind of mistake would never be seen, and if they want to return to the top things must improve. The one plus side to Silverstone was that at least Hamilton has returned to some kind of form! For more see: http://allsortsofmotorsports.wordpress.com/
Question is where would he go? With Red Bull and Ferrari not an option he'd be a fool to leave McLaren for any other team. All teams have their duff days, but having a car that needs to be pushed 110% shows up the little mistakes the teams make. Red Bull had a long pit stop, but the car is fast enough to make up for it and not let it effect the outcome of their race. Ferrari have also dropped some clangers in the last few seasons. It just comes with the territory when you work under pressure and the media spotlight. If McLaren bring out a good car next year or develop this one better then Lewis will be in the pound seats.
Welcome to the forum stephen. Did they low fuel him or did he burn up too much competing with alonso?
I thought that to Bando, I think you may be right, but at the same time the pitwall should have been looking at the long game and realising that battling for first was likely going to cost them 2nd and 3rd. we know that Vettel isn't mush of an overtaker and McLaren should have chosen to plumb for 2nd rather than challenge for 1st. Had they done that and backed Vettel in to Webber early on I think we would of had a momumental race. Either way, it was a bad call from McLaren but not something we haven't seen from other top flight teams.
Well it proves one thing at least, given enough fuel the mclaren can match the redbull ina race and the farrari
yes, I too was surprised at their relative gain again in race pace again over quali pace. If the rumors are true we may be seeing Whitmarsh leaving soon if things don't come good in the next 2 races. He's been given a lot more chances than the average UK football manager. Perhaps we may see Ron take the helm once again, the MP4-12C program is pretty much complete so he's not got much else to do at McLaren ;-)
The Mclaren was only really competitive in the damp stages of the race. As things progressed, it lost relative pace to the others. Alonso is a good example, Hamilton was matching him quite well but as things got drier he just pulled away. Vettel and Webber were both faster as well. The two Mclaren drivers absolutely make that car look better than it is.
That's quite possible McLarwum, but it's hard to confirm as Button dropped out and Lewis was fuel saving and on used tires. The race could have played out several different ways if McLaren hadn't made mistakes, but that's just the nature of racing.
i think both lewis and jenson may move on if mistakes continue to be made next season.already this season theyve made too many mistakes,and i expect them to make more. the car seems to be getting worse as the season progresses just like last season.we'll see what happens in the next few races.hopefully we'll see a big improvement. im glad the next 2 races are only a week apart,i hate these long breaks inbetween races.
Wasn't Button matching Alonso's pace and catching both Red Bulls before his disastrous pit stop? Didn't his engineer call him with the words, "Box to overtake", meaning get past Webber? I think you are wrong about both Vettel and Webber being faster, Mclarwum.
tsk, i suppose the extra fuel needed to finish the race is weightless then? McLaren took a bit of a gamble on the weather with his fuelling, I suspect they thought it might rain again which would've reduced fuel consumption. As to the title of the post, he's probably cost himself more points than McLaren have cost him through poor driving and decision making.
It's difficult to remember the specifics of who was on what stage of their tyres, but I think that had a lot to do with it. Both in Button catching up and Vettel catching Lewis. RBR have a faster car than Mclaren, I stand by that. I also believe the Mclaren drivers narrow the gap to RBR pace. Overall, Mclaren still need to catch up.
I'm a Lewis fan but right now I have more sympathy for Button vis-a-vis McLaren's mistakes. As Miggins says, Lewis has made quite a considerable contribution to his problems although it was good to see him getting back on track at Silverstone. However, I do think the team are letting them both down.
As I remember it, the team's radio message to Button to come in so that they could get past Webber was broadcast, so Red Bull immediately called Webber in to cover it. This put extra pressure on the team so that the mistake was more likely. Unfortunate for them, but these sort of things can happen. McLaren are still second in the team title race, and they are one of only three teams to win this season, and the only team that have had both of their drivers winning a race. I think that McLaren have made a top notch car. If the Red Bull had no movable aero device then Hamilton and all his fans would be fighting together for their second title.
Welcome to the forum Stephen Lickorish! And may I say what a good article you have opened your account with. You have raised some valid questions which must currently be being scrutinized at Woking. And I actually think you're right: in my opinion, McLaren are indeed letting their drivers down.
He owes a lot to the team - I can understand his frustration but he needs to stick with them. As someone said, RBR and McLaren are not an option so he has to stay at McLaren.
Eventually Newey will leave RBR and then I can't see them competing at the top again. I would love to see Ferrari vs Mclaren for the titles again like in 07 & 08. Red Bull can not compete with these two forever and it's only a matter of time before we see Alonso vs Hamilton for the championship imo.
Regarding Hamilton using up fuel whilst chasing Alonso- well, Lewis has been part of the McLaren structure for over a decade so surely they would know by now that he always pushes as hard as possible throughout every GP and therefore he shouldn't be given significantly less fuel than what is needed to complete the race? Oh, and thanks cosicave for those welcoming words!
