McLaren could test Honda car this year

F1 Fanatic Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: McLaren say they could test their new Honda-engined car before the start of the new year.

Links

Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.

McLaren could test 2015 Honda F1 car this year (Reuters)

Eric Boullier: “It is true that there was a comment but we won’t give a definite answer now because we actually don’t know yet exactly. But it’s very likely it may be before Jerez as well.”

McLaren to confirm F1 driver lineup will remain unchanged (The Guardian)

“McLaren will confirm in the next few weeks that Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen will drive for them again next season.”

McLaren hope to prise Hamilton from Mercedes (The Telegraph)

Ron Dennis: “No one could have predicted the tension inside Mercedes-Benz, and I didn’t say things that have been said by the executives or drivers, that we can all imagine a range of scenarios that could see one of those drivers on the market by the end of the year.”

‘McLaren progress is real’ (Sky)

Eric Boullier: “I keep saying every race we bring upgrades, Singapore we have another big one, and hopefully we will be able to keep fighting for fifth and sixth in qualy.”

Lewis Hamilton (left) and Nico Rosberg I will not do anything silly – Hamilton (BBC)

“‘Racing is what I do best. I won’t do anything silly,’ said Hamilton. ‘It might be in his mind, who knows?'”

Ecclestone hopeful of new Monza deal (Autodport)

“I spoke to them this morning and the bottom line is simple: all we want is for Monza to have the same terms as all the other European races,”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Is this the best chance to win for Williams?

I think this will be Williams’ best opportunity to win a race this year. Of course if the Mercedes drivers collide again, they will be the first ones in line, but I think there’s a genuine chance they can beat them on raw pace.

In Austria, the Williams drivers were somewhat able to keep up with the Mercedes drivers, and based on Friday practice they should be able to match Mercedes again this weekend. As Bottas said, it’s all about how much pace Mercedes have got left.

But even if Williams fail to reach their potential, it should be a good one too with the battle between the Mercedes drivers. We’ll see what happens at the start.
@Andae23

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Stephen!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Jackie Stewart clinched his first world championship 45 years ago today by winning the Italian Grand Prix, which put a seal on the crown with three races to spare.

He did so in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history, leading Jochen Rindt, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Bruce McLaren across the line covered by less than two-tenths of a second:

Image © McLaren/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

68 comments on “McLaren could test Honda car this year”

  1. Formula Indonesia (@)
    7th September 2014, 0:59

    Well I hope a lot for my favourite McLaren, I just hope they will rise again next year

    1. Just thinking….Lewis leaves Merc but wouldn’t really be wanting to partner Jenson again so KMag stays and JB goes to…his old team who still love him….Is that crazy or too obvious we can’t see it?

  2. Re- McLaren/Honda possible test
    We all know that Eric will spout any old crap he is told to, just look at the never arriving investment in lotus last year. Eric said week in week out that the money would be arriving and the deal done by then of next week, but next week just never came.
    If the guy can keep a straight face while peddling that rubbish to the world, then it shouldbe a piece of cake to declare that the Honda President (or what ever he was) has got it wrong with regard to when track testing will commence. Then who are we to argue with him.
    Racing Director = Big Ron’s BS spokesman.

    1. It’s a talent of Ron to be able to make one statement that confirms that LH will return to McLaren and also confirms that McLaren is not changing it’s driver line-up.

      1. LoL
        Ron says black – Eric says white
        Who is the voice of McLaren F1 team these days cos they sure ain’t singing from the same hymn book.

    2. As for the second story on the roundup about McLaren keeping the same drivers for next year, that is a real stretch of what Eric B actually said, he said they were happy with who they have and it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were driving next year, but at no time did he say that they are staying.
      I think if Lewis has lost the WDC before Abu Dhabi then they will make a major play for him to pry him out of Mercedes and possibly get him testing the new Honda powered car in the end of season test. If Lewis should win the WDC he will no doubt stay at Mercedes and they will stick with their current driver line up until 2016 and hope they have the best or 2nd best car by the time the summer break comes so they can attract either Vettel or Alonso.
      Remember before the end of the season can mean 15mins before lights out in Abu Dhabi.
      I have a feeling that if they give K-mag a good car he will do the biz and then there may be no need to spend gazillions of pounds a top draw driver.

    3. He wasn’t ‘peddling rubbish’ while talking about the Lotus investment last year, It was a deal which was realistic & his comments on ‘happening this week’ nearly always included the word ‘hopefully’.

      A deal was on the table & was real, However one party wasn’t happy with the terms so negotiations started & ultimately they were unable to reach a deal which suited both parties so it fell through. I also gather that Eric Boullier wasn’t the guy who was working on the deal from the Lotus side (That was Gerard Lopez) so he was likely simply repeating what he was been told by those actually involved in the negotiations.

      Its also possible that things have changed with Honda since they said they woudl not run a test this year as there’s talk that Honda are further along with the engine program than they expected to be. There was even a story 2 weeks ago that Honda had spoken to Indycar driver Simon Pagenaud about testing the F1 engine for them this year.
      He did a lot of the development on there Acura LMP1 program & there Indycar engine which is why they went go to him, They know & trust his feedback.

      1. I k oe Eric wasn’t actually doing the negotiations but he would seem to just spout the line the PR people told him to, which made him look a little silly. It’s exactly the same at McLaren now. He is a great puppet and Ron is the greatest puppet master next to Me E.

        Racing Director = Ron’s little lap dog

        1. It’s his job, you numpty. Why are you even making an issue of it?

    4. I used to like Boullier at Lotus, but at McLaren he’s been a drone so far. Just today, he goes against both drivers who were surprised by their speed to say that he isn’t because they’re bringing a lot of new parts.

      He might not want to sound arrogant, but when you have two drivers saying that it’s all down to the Mercedes engine and they’ll probably fall behind Red Bull in the race, and a racing director who says the progress is ‘real’, someone is wrong about where the team stands..

  3. I’m sure the other European tracks would be happy to adjust their contracts so that Monza can continue to host F1.

    1. I remember recently when he said the last contract was a disaster and we probably won’t do another one after 2016.

      Anybody get the feeling he said that just to get more money out of them?

  4. I hope Ham wins the WC and leaves it would really seperate him from some great drivers if he could go back what he started and win a 3rd with Mclaren. We all know it wont happen though it is written in the star for Ros he could not have asked for as much go his way. Very lucky to be leading the championship.

    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      7th September 2014, 1:36

      I don’t think it was very lucky, In my calculation Nico points : 243 Lewis : 244. I count that Lewis win on Germany Nico win on Hungary, and some changes. Its not 100% correct (uncertainity at Australia, GB, and Canada) but it just showed that Nico are competitive to Lewis, and he’s not “very lucky”

      1. That is the poorest argument to adjust points to allow for bad luck. You have to give Hamilton the Hungary win as he wouldn’t let Nico past.
        See it’s a can or worms. The guy with the most points wins. No matter how “unlucky” his competition is.

        You can’t spin a theory to show 1 driver is really doing better than the other as it can be spun in many different ways to suit which ever driver the commentator favours. They won’t care in the future if Lewis had 10 DNF’s, if Nico takes the WDC then that is what the records will say, there won’t be a foot note saying “Rosberg was just lucky” will they lol

        1. Hamilton wouldn’t be in front of Nico if it wasn’t for luck of the safety car

          1. Hamilton was still behind after the safety car. He was ahead because he was able to pass the car in front (I forget who, Perez maybe) whereas Rosberg wasn’t, therefore getting a chance to jump him in the pits.

      2. I see it like this. Hamilton has 3 retirements to Rosbergs 1. If they balanced out in the next 2 races, then Hamilton would almost have a race advantage over Rosberg. Then in the next 2 races Rosberg started from the back, Rosberg would at best emulate Hamilton’s thirds and lose 10 points per race. That would put it at a 41 point gap. Then you also should take into account all the little incidents that have just gone Nico’s way. Monaco qualifying, Canada Chicane cut, Belgium contact. And before you say that this method is a bad way of balancing out the results, it is much better that trying to predict for example, what would have happened if Hamilton’s car worked in Australia.

    2. Rosberg was indeed very lucky to be in F1 at this time, be at Mercedes at this time on the back of 4 disappointing seasons and have worked with the team very closely over those years. Joining Mercedes in 2010 to win in 2014 is as injust as Prost’s signing with Williams for 1993.

      1. @npf1 Indeed, Rosberg has been patient if anything. He could have moved to McLaren for 2008-2009, instead of Kovalainen, and probably won races, before moving to Mercedes in 2010 (Swap deal with Button). But, he knew what would happen at “Lewis’ McLaren” – number 2 driver. This happened to Kovalainen. Instead, it’s now equal terms/his team via mind games, and thus he is now ahead in the title hunt.

        Lewis is quickly becoming the next Stirling Moss – as someone who should have had multiple titles and been in contention for the top 10 ever, but is now missing out from various little mishaps.

      2. Formula Indonesia (@)
        7th September 2014, 2:30

        He beat Schumi 3 years in a row and its was Nico who brought Merc first victory. And then in 2013, he matched Hamilton pace, and without 3 mechanical failures, and Malaysia he should be ahead of Hamilton

        1. “without 3 mechanical failures and Malaysia he should be ahead of Hamilton”
          Erm…. This season without 3 mechanical failures Hamilton would be 43points ahead…..

          But you can’t live in a world of if’s but’s and maybe’s. Luck is random, good or bad.

          1. Formula Indonesia (@)
            7th September 2014, 3:08

            Yeah I think after he got bad luck in 2013, now hamilton turns in 2014, so yeah, the diffrent is the cost of the championship

          2. If Nico wins it won’t say in the records next to it “Lewis had more bad luck”
            You just can’t look at it that way.

          3. Formula Indonesia (@)
            7th September 2014, 3:14

            I think that was from Hamilton fans if Rosberg win, i’m not a supporter of both of them

    3. Rosberg and Hammy the haircut have both done silly things in f1 that they can both look at and say “what the heck was I doing/thinking”… Rosberg driving up the lane to get a yellow flag out, The other season Hammy blamed Button for “unfriending” him on twitter (I think thats the one) JB then said, ” I couldn’t have unfriended you on my twitter acc, you were not on it as a friend in the first place”.
      Again Hammy’s comments at points, one were he said to the team “is it cause I is black” professionalism eh. Recently Rosberg turns in to hit Hammy. They are like a pair of stubborn school kids.. Infact, Schoolkids learn lessons from past mistakes and still end up playing together by the end of class. Who needs a bickering little kid in their team who just stams their feet and blames everyone else when something goes wrong… Just get on with what your payed for win races, and put that sill book down.. “How to make friends and influence people” What ever happened to gentlemen in sport, or am I living in the past too.

  5. Mclaren need to be fair they should ditch KMag they did to Perez, But is a year older aswell this year if Mag is what we were told he would be things aint lucking good. You could say But maybe deserves to go but Mag aint great is he.

    1. Fairness would surely include context? Perez was hired off an impressive 2012 and did not get the results the team expected from him. Kevin Magnussen has a long history with the team, the team knows him, he knows the team. Unlike Perez, McLaren have invested a lot in him as a driver, so unlike a driver with no connection to the team, I think it’s in their interest to see how he develops.

    2. Magnussen’s results are better compared to Button considering he is a rookie, and has a much better attitude. His interview on Sky about his penalty at Spa was really mature. Perez mainly got picked because he had a season where he was mostly anonymous except for a few races where he was in the right place at the right time. That kind of driver is not the one you want. Look at this year, Perez is in form while Hulkenberg is not at this point in the season. But Hulkenberg is better because he capitalized on the car when it was at its best, while Perez is getting a few points per race now.

  6. Ecclestone quote

    “I spoke to them this morning and the bottom line is simple: all we want is for Monza to have the same terms as all the other European races,”

    Bernie !

    So you want the same money coming in from Monza as other Euro races ,

    Sounds fair ,

    Could you then apply the same principle to the sharing of funds between teams ,

    Just a thought

    1. Yes Bernie Ecclestone “the terms are money” and that is the thing that rules everything at Mr Ecclestone. Monza means nothing to this man if he doesn’t get a financial gain from it.

    2. I think the guys at Monza should reply to Bernie like this:
      “We heard your request about terms being the same as other European races and we completely agree with you. Therefore we are willing to accept the same terms as Monaco.”

  7. Keith what do you mean how is their 128 diff ways they can finsh 1-2?

    1. That threw me a curve ball as well!

      7races .position 1or2

      Uhm 14?

      But there are 3 types of people in this world ,

      Those good at math

      And those not!

      1. Actually, it’s not just the 14. If you say HAM-ROS for all races, that’s one possibility. There’s also the sequence of things, how many times does which driver finish where? It’s not just HAM wins 6, ROS wins 1, it’s also about which one they win that creates a new possibility. There’s 14 possible results for the 7 races which involve a Merc 1-2, but the season offers 128.

        1. It’s a 7 digit binary number, or 128. I bet in the 7 scenarios where Lewis win it’s all with an Abu Double at the end. ;)

      2. Jarred Walmsley
        7th September 2014, 2:26

        The 128 refers to how many different possibilities there are all up.

        I.e possibility one is LH wins all and NR comes second in all. Possiblity two is the reverse, possibltly 3 is that LH wins all but 1 and NR wins that race and comes second in the rest etc…

        1. then throw in the penalty’s for using an extra engine or gearbox,
          there is going to be some sad faces shortly,
          some of the field will be moving backwards on the grid within the next 3 or 4 races…

    2. There are two distict outcomes we are looking at for each race.

      After one face they could finish in two positions
      After two races they could finished in 4 permutations of a 1-2 combo
      After three races they could finished in 8 permutations
      After four races they could finished in 16 permutations
      Five races they could finish in 32 permutations of a 1-2 combo
      After Six races they could finish in 64 permutatiosn of a 1-2 combo
      After seven races they could finish in 128 permutations of a 1-2 combo.

      Get it? Once you get your head round it it makes sense.

      1. Or in simple mathematics: 2(positions)^7(races)=128

    3. ColdFly F1 (@)
      7th September 2014, 8:53

      And the 7 ways to win for Ham would have been 8 if there were no double points in ABU.

      Another reason we all hate the double points in ABU!

    4. Who cares? They will finish 1-2 and that is the boring thing about F1 in 2014. This year as the previous 4 years one team has dominated F1. I thought as a long time fan of F1 that 2014 will be different and that these Hybrids will bring closer racing and fore mostly there will not be one team/car that will dominate like the RB’s dominated the 4 previous years. I am not a fan of any team and/or driver I love F1 as whole and all that I want is to see close racing (which there was in 2014) and not one tem dominate with such an advantage as is present in 2014. Maybe 2015 will be different?

  8. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    7th September 2014, 1:42

    People keep saying that Lewis must win every race, but he’s only 29pts behind, and even if he does win every race, with Nico coming second, it’ll only take him 5 rounds before he’s back in the lead by 6pts (including Monza). With 7 rounds remaining, it’s more than doable.

    The biggest factor will be car reliability.

    Sure it’d help the Championship battle more immediately if Rosberg has some issues, or whatever you want to call it, but I think people are potentially over-blowing the points difference.

    Hypothetically if it were Lewis-Rosberg 1-2 for the next 5 rounds, then Lewis will leave USA with the Championship lead.

    1. I think you’re forgetting about Abu Double. If he does get the lead after 5 wins, the 6th would put his lead on 14 points, which is not enough to cover the points difference between 1st for Rosberg and 2nd for Hamilton at the Abu Double Points extravaganza.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        7th September 2014, 4:28

        Damn Bernie.

    2. But in Abu Dhabi there is a 14point gap between 1st and second so Lewis must win all the races as if he won all but Abu Dhabi then can second, Rosberg would still win.

      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        7th September 2014, 3:13

        Actually if Lewis win round 13,14,15,16,17,18, he’ll get 13 points advantage if Nico is runner up on all races (7×6) – 29 = 13. With the double points if Rosberg wins, he will get the title by 1 point, very close

        1. Formula Indonesia (@)
          7th September 2014, 3:21

          But I dont think Lewis will win all of 6 races before Abu Dhabi.

          1. ColdFly F1 (@)
            7th September 2014, 8:57

            @f1indofans#IfVetcouldHamcan!

          2. Thankfully Abu Dhabi is one of Hamilton’s strongest races.

          3. Formula Indonesia (@)
            7th September 2014, 9:48

            @coldfly Yes he can but Nico is way tougher for Hamiltom than Mark for Seb. But yeah its possible,@jh1806 remmember last year when Lewis was way behind Nico, everything can happen, either its favour Lewis or Nico

        2. He did win the 4 races in a row when he didn’t have mechanical problems.

      2. 14 points is enough for Hamilton to win the championship if he finishes 2nd to Rosberg in AB

  9. Everybody assumes they will be 1st and second, what about grid penalties for engine/gearbox changes?

    1. @tenerifeman

      Would it be fair to assume Hamilton is more likely to incur a Power-Unit penalty at some point, due to the greater number of reliability issues (including an engine fire)?

      I know they’re pretty much equal on part usage, but perhaps Lewis has ‘used to capacity’ some components, whilst Nico can still use pieces again.

  10. Same terms as the other European races…

    Like Monaco?

    Circuits like Monza, Silverstone and Spa are part of the sport’s identity and add to the ‘brand’. So maybe it’d be better for the sport’s future to reduce their fees to Monza-level, rather than raise Monza to theirs.

    1. @neilosjames I think Keith made a good article on how Monaco should really pay up a little for their race. Ideally, that money could go to the poorer teams and directly translate into more staff..

      1. And if not, why not run a French GP for a small amount instead?

  11. Great video from 1969… where all but 1st positions are incorrectly announced / displayed! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Italian_Grand_Prix

  12. ColdFly F1 (@)
    7th September 2014, 8:46

    great tweet by @f1fanatic_co_uk @keithcollantine

    There are 128 ways @LewisHamilton & @nico_rosberg can finish 1-2 in the remaining races. In only 7 of those would Hamilton be champion. #F1

    And funny: if Ham wins a 1-2 in Monza there will be only 6 ways left!!

    1. I actually don’t think it’s that great.

      I mean I understand and share @keithcollantine‘s opposing stance to the double points, and I kind of see the point that bringing up and giving some (social media) exposure to somewhat practical examples helps putting the thing into perspective as much as possible (which helps the fight against it and for fair regulations), but – and it’s a huge BUT – I very much think this is an end justifying the means in that it is highly unlikely Mercedes will finish 1-2 in all of the remaining seven races. Even early in the year, with less tension, the longest streak they managed was four… So the implied argument in the tweet loses it’s relevance. Of course, it’s easy to deny it’s implied, but if others still think it is and see its impracticality, the case against the double points could even lose some credibility and seriousness.

      (Of course, it’s easy for me to say that this is the end justifying the means, when it’s not me who tries to run a website in a commercially successful way…)

      1. @atticus-2, (I think) I understand your reply.
        But my comment referred to the 1st tweet, which does not mention the double points.
        (and the double pts has only a minor impact – it would have been 8 of 128)

  13. Only just realised I got COTD! Thanks Keith :)

    1. And it was very well put.

  14. There are 128 ways @LewisHamilton & @nico_rosberg can finish 1-2 in the remaining races. In only 7 of those would Hamilton be champion.

    In other words, if the Mercs keep scoring 1-2’s for the rest of the season, Hamilton can only “lose” only one of those before Abu Dhabi.

  15. Dat slipstreaming Monza finish from 1969…

  16. If Hamilton leads a Mercedes 1-2 at the next 5 races but loses to Rosberg in Abu Dhabi, he will have won 11 races in a year… and NOT be world champion!

    It’s hilarious that this is even possible. Only in F1…

Comments are closed.