AM acknowledged some years ago they didnt have, so they made a copy that made them punch above their weight, and thats totally legit in my opinion. Just like AM/Fallows recently said, they will buy whatever they can from merc until they can build something better themselves. And thats the only way forward in my opinion. Accept the cards you have and play them right. Be pragmatic/rational. Only results count!. Same when im angry with mclaren for mentioning for years they had the right setup, the right people in place. When your car for years dont exel at anything, then you dont have enough or the right people. Until youre at the front, onces goal should always be to try and get high ranking people from other teams, to get their experience into the knowledge pool that hopefully will result in a top car one day.
In my opinion mclaren is falling into the williams trap. We are a proud has been leader in F1 and we do everything ourselves. Even its obvious they are miles of the top 3, they continue with that mindset and that is just completely wrong in my opinion. Suck it up. Your a midfield team, now deal with it, act according to that fact, which means considering buying components from leading teams, like maybe susp and gearbox from merc. And when time is right we hopefully have the right setup to compete at the front. And thats my last fear. Audi went to sauber. Porsche will go to maybe williams, now which constructer will Mclaren end up with, because with these big names entering do we really think mclaren will make it on their own. NO, NO WAY. So Honda maybe? i dont know. But if Audi indeed was on the table incl taking over the whole mclaren brand/car production, which has been a bad business for years, why on earth they didnt accept, is so far beyond my understanding,
But each year in feb i still turn up hoping for a McLaren miracle ahahahahaha
Swed3121 wrote: ↑25 Jan 2023, 10:44Very amusing how you imply McLaren should copy others after an entire article on the technical brilliance of AMR, who’s Only decent performance has come from directly copying the merc and RB18f1rules wrote: ↑24 Jan 2023, 21:25Agree, in short this will be a very important year for mcl. Either they will confirm theyre on a downwards trajectory or hopefully show that last year was just a dip in a otherwise positive trend. Personally im curious about aston, everything they did, the investments, the recruitments, their new tech dir and the interviews he gave, very impressive and much more pragmatic and rational than say mclaren.
On the positive side, atleast mclaren now have a concept to copy for this year, as coming up with great designs themselves isnt one of their strongest sides
BMMR61 wrote: ↑24 Jan 2023, 21:02I have mixed feelings on the main issues and claims in the recent debates on infrastructure, drivers struggling to adapt, and overall performance trajectory of the team.
First, like some here, I have concerns that too much belief is put into the angle that the new tunnel will be somehow a magic bullet. It sounds reminiscent of when the team believed the Honda PU was undermining a car that had the best chassis of 2017. Clearly there are still some major improvements needed across the board before thinking of challenging for wins and championships.
Second, the strange characteristics story has been overblown and extended in my opinion. Were it not for Daniel’s dip in form the story would have fallen off the radar. Generally, talented young drivers, which Oscar most certainly is, bring a fresh mindset, and tend to be highly adaptable. The latter is definitely a two-edged sword as they drive around issues more than they bring experience to bear on car development. McLaren will likely rely heavily on Lando to develop this year’s car.
Third, there is an understandable negative mindset to McLaren’s overall trajectory which I take issue with. When fans, as I assume most of us here are, endure a season as disappointing as 2022 was for McLaren, many become pessimistic and say the team are on the downslope. I would point out that the 2022 car was a lemon until such time (2023?) that slipping back down the field becomes a trend. I’m unhappy with 2022’s car which I think was subpar and I’m surprised that Key’s design team got the new regs wrong to the extent they did. Yes the 36 was a bit of a pig but to what extent? 4th place was within the car’s ability were it not for a really terrible effort by Daniel and 4th should have been easily the result. On the other hand the gap to the big three opened significantly. This revealed the baked in greater resources of these teams, especially Mercedes who were able to recover from a rubbish car from the start of the year.
McLaren made steady progress from early 2019 to late 2021, now that’s more of a trend than a blip isn’t it! Slightly lucky podium at end of 2019, a few genuine podiums in 2020, culminating in win and pole at consecutive GPS in Italy and Russia. Yes it tailed off but the culprit for last year was mainly some poor assumptions around the new regs.
So concluding, McLaren need to halve the gap before the new infrastructure is in the mix (no easy feat), Piastri will almost certainly be the driver revelation of 2023 once he settles in, and history should show that 2022 was a blip rather than part of a bigger trend. All these are generally underpinned by my optimism as opposed to pessimism expressed by others. As long as we have a strong fight for P4 and close the gap to the leaders to under 1.0, we should feel encouraged for the future with the new technologies.
