McLaren has Ferrari in its sights – Button

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In the round-up: Jenson Button believes McLaren can catch Ferrari by the end of this season.

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Lance Stroll is in the running for an F1 debut with Williams
Is it unrealistic to believe Williams will turn down a combination of talent plus cash when they come to fill Felipe Massa’s seat?

Wehrlein’s a talent and has one year experience under his belt. But those who voted for Wehrlein completely ignore Williams’ need for a budget, or, how modern F1 works, for that matter.

For a team like Williams, the budget a driver brings is just as big a factor as experience and talent. Hence I can’t look passed Stroll or Nasr in the second Williams seat for next year. For the team, those drivers would be the best choice, hence, I hope they pick them. What else could I vote?
@Jaapgrolleman

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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...

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46 comments on “McLaren has Ferrari in its sights – Button”

  1. I guess McLaren have already upgraded to the iphone7 plus.

    1. They should aim for Force India instead of talking about beating Ferrari…

      1. McLaren kings of spin. They do have Ferrari in their sites…..5 places in front at the start then disappering into the distance after the 1st corner only to be seen again when they are lapped….jokers.

      2. @paeschli They’re feeling the pressure, they keep having a go at Ferrari, in all ways but at the track. You are right you got look at the guy in front either of you or everybody.
        I guess McHonda have an okay chassis but when you look at the results they’ve got some good points on quick tracks, so I wonder what’s going to happen when Honda merge the benefits of a compact package with great race pace.

      3. How many times did mclaren beat FERRARI in the last decade, 5 out of twenty times?
        And, Button after being demoted from first division to third division had as much a chance of returning to a F1 seat as Barrichello had.

        1. Except that Button actually has a contract. But don’t let facts get in the way of your rant!

  2. I don’t know in what world Kvyat is living in.
    Right now is when the contracts for the midfield teams are signed and they base their decision on recent good performances and obviously budget, he has neither.
    That’s why the likes of Pérez, Sainz and Stroll are highly sought after but not someone like Palmer or Magnussen.

    Unless he has a real solid offer right now I think it’ll be very difficult for him to be driving next year.

    1. Perez, Sainz and Kvyat are better drivers than Magnussen and Palmer. Apart from Ericsson, Nasr and Harianto pretty much all current drivers are better than Palmer imho. Magnussen is really dissapointing this yr aswell imo. I know the car sucks and it is hard to stand out but neither has show much of anything within that context.

      1. Kvyat is most certainly not better than Magnussen. I can understand Perez and Sainz; but Magnussen got a 7th place in Russia, while Kvyat’s best results in a Toro Rosso (a clearly superior car) is 10th.

    2. I doubt a great end-of-season will open doors in F1, but I’m also not sure that Daniil is entirely convinced there’ll be good offers from that direction anyway (regardless of his future performance). It could, however, open doors in any of several other series.

  3. Its going to be fascinating to watch the McLaren in Singapore. Finally we have a nice downforce circuit to really test their recent development.

    1. It may be a circuit where McLaren can take it to Ferrari. Perhaps wishful thinking :)

      1. At this point wishful thinking, but I hope it materialize. ;)

      2. keep dreaming.

  4. Good point from Mark Gallagher, really a great moment to ask Briatore of all people about “spicing up the racing”.

    I am not even sure whether I want to read an interview with that cheat!

    1. @BasCB Although I’m no fan of Briatore’s, the most irritating thing about him is he’s not always wrong. I think his point about ‘bureaucracy’ is well made.

      1. Agreed. We can’t keep living in the past with him. Alright, he made an extremely big cock-up and paid the price. It doesn’t mean everything Pat Symmonds says is invalidated, too. Or Nelson, for that matter.

        He’s spot on. I’m really worried i’m falling out of love with F1. There’s too much BS talk of rules and penalties, and that’s not what i’ve signed up for, or many other F1 fans.

        1. Agree Dan Selby, We can’t keep living in the past, it’s time to get over Briatore’s past, after all we have all long forgiven Pat Symonds for being a partner in crime.

      2. Sure @keithcollantine, the focus on rules (see how the radio rules came about, or indeed the qualifying stuff, next year’s aero rules etc) is looking at the sport from the wrong angle.

        But Briatore showed us HIS angle of view on the sport already, and it is not an improvement either I think!

  5. Looks like McLaren are on something good! Maybe they had a party for Button’s final races and that was when the optimism kicked in?

    Would be nice to see them really do as good and battle it out at the front, but I will believe it when I see it.

    1. Force India did say that Mclaren could ruin their and Williams party in coming races, so there’s genuine excitement.

      1. Sure @illusive. But Toto Wolf also keeps saying Mercedes are wary of Red Bull and Ferrari …

        I do think that McLaren can get in between (or is already in the midst of) those two in the races, especially with Williams tailing off a bit lately. And it certainly is a step ahead for McLaren, but still not really fighting with Ferrari, that would take another big step ahead.

  6. Why would McLaren want to end 2016 battling Ferrari? I thought they would have moved most resources to 2017. It is not like both teams are fighting for the title. Ferrari have the 2nd place fight on hands but aren’t going full throttle on 2016 updates. They did one thing right and exhausted the tokens to upgrade the engine. I can see FI and Williams ahead of them before they think of even battling with Ferrari.

    RB did great in Singapore with a lesser PU, last year. McLaren are harping about their chassis for quite sometime now and have also told about improvements to the PU. Hope they can walk the talk in Singapore.

    Maybe Ferrari will wave at Button when he is being lapped. Button doing his ambassadorial duties already blowing hot air into the McLaren balloon.

    1. The Blade Runner (@)
      13th September 2016, 8:35

      Let’s put a pin in this post and discuss it on Sunday afternoon…

    2. Because the limiting factor on the McLaren car is the engine. It seems like the McLaren chassis is fundamentally good right now. While McLaren may have moved on to next year, Honda have stated that they are still working on this years engine. The engines remain the same next year, so Honda will keep developing. If they can find a few more horsepower, then McLaren can start to rise up the grid.
      They can’t catch FI or Williams, but they still need to beat Torro Rosso who are only 3 points behind. Albeit with an engine that isn’t being developed.

      1. To add to what @mickharrold mentions, McLaren have repeatedly stated that they have parts available that they are currently not putting on the car because with the engine “handicap” they cannot afford the drag they would bring.

        With a better engine, and especially on tracks where the engine is less important, I guess they expect to be able to put a lot of extra downforce on the car @evered7

        1. Improvements in engine power and aero are all worthwhile aims, but what seem to have been the dominating factor on final podium positions this year has been the ability to manage tyres, something the McLaren is not good at.

        2. Of course they have. Easy to talk like they do. They had the best engine in 2014 then when they got a bad engine by some miracle their chassis is top class but of course cannot be proven.

          1. Markp, well, many do feel that Prodromou was a significant addition to McLaren’s aerodynamics department – he does have Red Bull’s title winning cars to his credit (having been head hunted by Red Bull on Newey’s personal instructions to head up Red Bull’s aerodynamics department). Equally, given the mistakes that were made with the aero correlation on their 2014 chassis, it is at least credible that they are more likely to have moved forwards than backwards with their chassis design (though whether it is as good as they claim it is is up for debate).

        3. @bascb Didn’t they exult at the result of Spa? Isn’t that proof that they made a good move forward with the engine? If that is the case, what is stopping them from getting more DF to the car. The issue I see predominantly is that the car is still hungry for fuel. But I am not sure if all the teams actually start with 100L of fuel in the tanks in the first place.

          I have a feeling that it is a combination of mediocrity at McLaren at the moment. McLaren failing with the chassis, Honda with the PU, Exxon with the fuel. McLaren are happy to shift the blame on the PU and Honda aren’t really giving back as bad as they are getting.

          I haven’t yet forgotten how they hyped Monaco as well only to come a dud.

          1. They were quite happy at spa that they did as well as they did, despite not being able to put all DF on the car (to avoid being a sitting duck on the straights) @evered7.

            They are bringing another engine update that should help them close the engine deficit gap and put on more downforce, and that is where the optimism for the rest of the year comes from.

            I don’t agree with you on the feeling of mediocrity. I do think that in the past few years McLaren has suffered from too much focus on one area of the car, making it unbalalance or lacking in others. And off course the Honda engine woes added to that. But since at least mid last season they have been on an upward trajectory and i can see how it might work.

      2. I heard Honda have a huge HP upgrade but are holding back as the McLaren chassis cannot take it… .oh no thats BS as well.

  7. Regarding the COTD, am I wrong in thinking that because Werhlein is a Mercedes driver that if he were to be ‘placed’ at Williams then the team would receive a hefty engine bill reduction? I believe that’s how it’s worked before but I guess each case is different.

    1. @unicron2002:
      I think that’s a real possibility and an important consideration for Williams.

      Also, wouldn’t it be funny if Williams signed Wehrlein? In that case, @Jaapgrolleman could learn a thing or two about ‘how modern F1 works’ … :p

      1. I think it is pretty clear ‘how modern F1 works’. @Jaapgrolleman only needs to go back a few months and analyse why Manor picked Wehrlein (coming with a discounted PU) rather one of those kids with a rich father.
        For a team like Manor, the budget a driver brings is (even more so than for Williams) a factor than experience and talent.

        1. @coldfly the Mercedes engine deal has nothing to do with wehrlein. the official position from both sides is that in exchange for wehrlein’s seat Manor get to use mercedes’ windtunnel

      2. Well, nope. Stroll signed the deal.

        1. @jaapgrolleman
          What deal? As far as I know, Williams haven’t announced anyone for 2017 yet.
          So far, they’ve made a different deal with Stroll: His dad gives them 20 million squid, Williams let him test with their 2014 car on several tracks around the world.
          It is possible that Williams will accept their money for a seat in 2017 as well. But for the moment, they’re just making a lot of cash without actually giving Stroll a drive.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      13th September 2016, 9:46

      That was my thinking – it would benefit Mercedes to have Wehrlein tested against a decent driver like Bottas. He appears to be showing some serious potential in the Manor but what does beating the likes of Haryanto really prove?

    3. @unicron2002
      Claire Wiliams: “We made a very conscious decision back in 2013 that we wanted to move away from the pay driver position. We would never put a driver in our car purely for financial reasons, because that’s not who we are as a team, it’s not who we need to be as a team.” Of course Wehrlein has talent enough to not be considered a pay driver, but still not polished enough to be chosen on pure merit IMO. With Pat Symonds saying Williams is ready for a star driver, I bet Williams was rather hoping for Perez.

    4. @unicron2002
      That was pretty much my point on that poll.
      Bring in Wehrlein and get a discount on engines in exchange for a deal giving Mercedes the option to take him if/when they decide he’s ready.

    5. @unicron2002 I don’t think so. The Wehrlein to Manor deal had nothing to do with the team getting a reduced price on their power units, from what I read. It would have made sense too as the power unit deal was confirmed well before Wehrlein was.

  8. I believe JB is on drugs (very good and strong ones) giving him sight beyond the universe and letting him dream of good things (But I do believe ML could bother FER in Singapore and nowhere else). Yet another useless PR interview and if I believe his words, the ML will be ahead of FI and WIL.
    Personally, I think the ML can get the Williams by the end of the season given how bad the Williams’s chassis is (proof Spa. The same applies to Austin, Sepang, Suzuka and Singapore are more about chassis) and how Massa underperforms.

  9. Go the Shoey! Done it many times myself. It is a crying shame that it has taken this long to get it’s rightful place on the international stage. What he needs to do next is win the Aussie GP and yell out “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi” It’s our unofficial national anthem for bogans.
    However if RIC takes another Aussie tradition, “Wheel of Goon” (Google it) he may be taking it a step too far. He may also find it hard to find a Hills Hoist on he podium.

  10. Really high ambitions given the implied state-of-play thus far this season. I would be very pleased indeed were this to materialise.

  11. Beware of the eyes that March. Maybe Button and Alonso should get the job done first. Remember the Monaco disaster. Basically actions speak louder than words.

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