Is McLaren in trouble?
- This topic has 9 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
So is there some grand plan over at McLaren, or is this team in a mess?
The whole driver choice business seems rather undignified. They have a junior programme, but seem unwilling to put their faith in it (i.e. unable to decide to keep Magnussen for a second year).
Ron Dennis stages boardroom coup to get back in charge, hardly a move that would inspire confidence in the team’s stability. No title sponsor, and unable to beat Williams to the Martini money.
Their choice in senior personnel seems questionable. I mean, Sam Michael? Although I know he’s gone now. And I don’t see what Eric Boullier has done to warrant such a senior role at McLaren.
I hope they get themselves sorted, as they have been a great advert for British success and innovation. But they come across as out-of-touch and arrogant – so no-one cares about them any more.
I think it’s clear that they are in trouble. Even with a good car, they were unable to capitalise, and since then it has just gotten worse.
Not only that, but their demeanour has been disgraceful. To leave their decision this late is plain disrespectful and because of that they have lost all respect I had for them no matter the outcome.
I certainly can’t see their fortunes improving anytime soon.
Yes, McLaren is in
chaosdisarea (better word) right now, not a position Ron wanted to be in right now, especialy now Honda is comming in. Not forgetting he promised the board of shareholders a title sponsor this year, a promise he has definetly not deliverd.This has been one of my great anoyances with this years Silly Season, Ferrari is in Chaos but McLaren-Honda is going to dominate F1, at least that is what the average F1 fans seems to think.
This drama/saga about the 2015 drivers is just redicoulus, we know Alonso is going there, why they haven’t acounced it is beyond me. Then there is the Button/Magnussen case, what on earth have they more to talk about more, it’s not like they don’t have some data to compare both of them…
It makes the management look weak, which it probably is. Ron Dennis is not making a good impression on his comeback as a McLaren boss. Looks like he has the same problem as Bernie, that is being stuck in the 80’s
Then there is the techniacl departement, Sam Micheal was hailed as the big name Mclaren neede but after 3 years and 2 horendous cars he is out. Perhaps the only silver linning here is peter prodromou, but then again making a perfect copy of the RB front wing and stiking it onto your car doesn’t make much of an impression either.
So again, Ferrari is in mega trouble but McLaren-Honda will take 2015 by storm?? It’s probably just going to be Mercedes / Williams and Red Bull up front next year.
Mclaren delay is disgusting, from Derek Warwick; http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/30346965
But what’s up with that *perfectionism* from Mclaren, eh? Ron Dennis’ *attention to detail*? For instance the MP4-12C..
Is “perfection” and “attention to detail” a big Mclaren marketing gimmick, for the public? So there’s nothing in it – because if they were perfect then this should not happen!
@ibrahim With Lewis (leaving)?
Not Hamilton leaving, but Mercedes leaving – that prompted Hamilton to follow them instead, knowing they had the cash to strike gold in the new engine formula. He also knew that a big part of the McLaren success was the backing of Mercedes – without that, McLaren would have been nowhere since Senna and Honda left the team.
Before that – TAG/Porsche with Prost – which left Dennis in the position he is in now, i.e. the equal minor of 3 partners, him and Ojjeh, and Mumtalakat (Bahrain sovereign wealth fund). He needs to buy a majority to lead the team if others disagree with him, giving us the driver squabble, which is actually about the future of McLaren.
Perez being hired as a pay driver was the first sign of trouble (i.e. without the subsidy of Mercedes engines). Magnussen is now in the same situation, Ron is trying to provide his vision of the future, i.e. Ron/Magnussen/Danish sponsorship allowing him to take control of McLaren. Button brings no sponsors – so can only stay on as a ‘luxury’ number 2.
But it’s not forthcoming – there’ll be no driver decision made until January, and it’ll be concurrent with resolving Dennis’ role in the team. At this point, I think there’s more chance of McLaren matching Williams in future, rather than Mercedes or Red Bull, but that’s all Alonso needs to be in with a fighting chance, as at Ferrari he basically had none.
@fastiesty Last time I checked it was McLaren that left Mercedes, not the other way around. McLaren have not been to the sort of level that they should be since Adrian Newey left, and more importantly, since Martin Whitmarsh took over the team. That is where it all started to go wrong. The fact that McLaren failed to deliver a title between 2010 and 2012 with two very capable world champions is mind boggling, especially in 2012 where they clearly had a performance advantage over Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus yet both of their world champion drivers finished behind one driver from each team. That year was absolutely shambles, and it hasn’t got much better since. Losing Hamilton has also appeared to play a big role in this.
This year has been a year of transition for the team, and next year will be too. Dragging McLaren back to the front is not going to happen overnight. Remember it took Ron Dennis no less than four years to take the team to championship glory when he took over for the first time remember, although they came close in 1982 with John Watson. As for Eric Boullier, give him time. I had masses of respect for what he achieved at Lotus, so I am convinced that he will bring a lot to McLaren in the long term.
McLaren are in a big mess right now, I understand that. Nowhere near on the scale of Williams last year, but it’s still big. But we must remember that McLaren have won just one championship out of the last fifteen years. A success rate of 3.3%. That’s just not good enough for a team like McLaren, but I am optimistic for the long term as a life-long fan.
@craig-o Was it not Mercedes that divested itself of McLaren when it bought Brawn GP in 2010? I think that went through by 2012, and in 2013 McLaren had to pay for customer engines, hence signing Perez for £5m over someone like Hulkenberg, who cost them WCC bonus money hitting Lewis in Brazil.
I agree that 2012 is the one that got away from Lewis/McLaren, and in 2010 they were unlucky. Lewis took it to Red Bull when they didn’t have reliability, but that flipped around in 2012. Those 3 teams really had more of a ‘number 1 driver’ just generally, while to be honest Lewis should have been McLaren number one. You can’t fight others when you are fighting in your team, e.g. 2007, while 2005 and 2003 were also lost championship chances.
Williams I just felt had gone into ‘McLaren minor’ mode, i.e. only able to produce a good car every other year, as above, hence 2011 and 2013 sucking hard. But last year they, like Caterham, hindered themselves by losing performance trying to apply an EBD. Hence Bottas’ COTA points once they took the damn thing off the car!
McLaren have probably done something similar by trying to chase pull rod suspension, but that’s something that Alonso may actually want them to keep plugging away at…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.