2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Mansell89]

So McLaren knows which areas need to be improved, and that can feed into the upgrade for Baku. "If we look at the upgrade for Baku, then the figures look promising. Hopefully we can reach the fifth place with this. But that's not enough to achieve our season goals, because we want to have a top-4 car." After Baku, work on the car has to continue in order to make the big leap forward
https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel ... r-23032204

Wow, that’s aiming for 5th even assuming no further progress from competitors?

Could be a challenging year. In a way, this was needed. Aston setting things alight and showing what great talent can do even without the absolute ideal tools (that said- Merc wind tunnel must be an enormous advantage over our Cologne (Toyota) one?.

We have been caught out by Ferraris improvement, Astons ambition and execution, and have been left in no man’s land along with Alpine.

Glad to hear we’re on a hiring spree and I hope we pick the right talent to help us push the envelope.

Wind tunnel online in the summer is it?

[VivecF1]

We have been caught out by Ferraris improvement, Astons ambition and execution, and have been left in no man’s land along with Alpine.

It has been a loooooong time since McLaren hasn't been 'caught out' by Ferraris improvement .
It's tough to see, but the current team is in shambles and only a shadow of the most recent great 2005 to 2008 team.
Granted, Ferrari hasn't won either since 2007, but they have been in the fight regularly or there abouts.

And I really don't think it's the driver(s), although we still need to see what Piastri can really bring.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed (every year) for a resurgence, because McLaren deserve better... I keep telling myself .

[McL-H]

Ah well.. this will give the team more CFD time and time in the wind tunnel. Then maybe 2024 could finally be our year. I don’t know.

Not sure whether I will bother continue watching this season. Red Bull’s dominance is boring af and in all honesty I can’t be bothered about whether McLaren finish 5th or 6th. I mean, does anyone here really cares? Maybe it’s better to just come back in 2024 and see whether we have an actual championship fight and whether McLaren can compete with the top teams or not.

[mwillems]

Always look on the bright side of life, de dum, de dum de dum de dum

[RS200E]

I'm a long time supporter but it's amazing that the McLaren threads are always the most popular here when they have hardly done anything interesting in nearly 10 years. Especially with the car. The Honda partnership was the most interesting thing to date in 10 years. Since then it has been downhill in nearly every way, fom management to car design. 1 win and maximum 3rd in the championship. Ron Dennis would have had the team in a better position by now with the Chinese investors that the board hated so much. Imagine the Chinese money + the usual Bahrain money + Honda money + Ron's leadership Ok him and Whitmarsh messed up believing Honda could step up in such a short time but I'm pretty sure he/they would have put it right before now.

For years te threads have been made up with childish bickering which is the same year after year. Even the mods have given up removing unrelated posts amongst others.

Thankfully something substantially interesting and positive is happening again with the wind tunnel and Norris has become potential championship material. He has been bullish recently. If McLaren don't step up soon he will be gone.

You mean Ron's leadership that practically chased Adrian Newey out of the team, completeley screwed up management of the entire team in 2007 allowing spygate to be a thing, leading to Mercedes dumping McLaren as a works team, and forced Honda to enter sooner than they wanted to thus leading to the biggest decline in the history of the team? Man was good in the '80s and '90s, but acting like he's some kind of McLaren Messiah is utterly silly. If anything he should have been removed entirely from the team sooner than what eventually happened in 2017.

You mean Check Chasing Newey? He goes where the money is. He even stayed with McLaren a little longer for more money.

Mercedes were willing to stick with McLaren and actually wanted to continue for at least another year with McLaren. You don't know what you're talking about.

McLaren were in a great position to dig themselves out of the hole they were in TOGETHER with Honda. Honda were becoming more accepting of outside help and were also updating machining and facilities. Honda have came a long way in 10 years. From being delusional liars (just look at their press conferences) to being integrated with Red Bull. It really is amazing. A steady healthy budget and improvement was imminent. It was always funny to read people complaining about lack of stickers on the McLaren Honda cars. Now look at the car and the team is still a failure. I don't think you have comprehended how massive McLaren's budget would have been with Ron and Honda still there. Ok there is a budget cap now but Ron's passion and vision would have meant sticking with Honda and the new wind tunnel would have already been built and in use by now. Oh and Alonso would have stayed longer and McLaren might still own their own bloody building.

McLaren are where they are now because of decisions by the owners, not because of Honda or Ron Dennis. McLaren have lost around 4-5 years of progress because of the owners bad decisions. They know that, Andreas Seidel knew that and that's why he asked for a new wind tunnel and they said yes.

[MTudor]

I'm a long time supporter but it's amazing that the McLaren threads are always the most popular here when they have hardly done anything interesting in nearly 10 years. Especially with the car. The Honda partnership was the most interesting thing to date in 10 years. Since then it has been downhill in nearly every way, fom management to car design. 1 win and maximum 3rd in the championship. Ron Dennis would have had the team in a better position by now with the Chinese investors that the board hated so much. Imagine the Chinese money + the usual Bahrain money + Honda money + Ron's leadership Ok him and Whitmarsh messed up believing Honda could step up in such a short time but I'm pretty sure he/they would have put it right before now.

For years te threads have been made up with childish bickering which is the same year after year. Even the mods have given up removing unrelated posts amongst others.

Thankfully something substantially interesting and positive is happening again with the wind tunnel and Norris has become potential championship material. He has been bullish recently. If McLaren don't step up soon he will be gone.

You mean Ron's leadership that practically chased Adrian Newey out of the team, completeley screwed up management of the entire team in 2007 allowing spygate to be a thing, leading to Mercedes dumping McLaren as a works team, and forced Honda to enter sooner than they wanted to thus leading to the biggest decline in the history of the team? Man was good in the '80s and '90s, but acting like he's some kind of McLaren Messiah is utterly silly. If anything he should have been removed entirely from the team sooner than what eventually happened in 2017.

You mean Check Chasing Newey? He goes where the money is. He even stayed with McLaren a little longer for more money.

Mercedes were willing to stick with McLaren and actually wanted to continue for at least another year with McLaren. You don't know what you're talking about.

McLaren were in a great position to dig themselves out of the hole they were in TOGETHER with Honda. Honda were becoming more accepting of outside help and were also updating machining and facilities. Honda have came a long way in 10 years. From being delusional liars (just look at their press conferences) to being integrated with Red Bull. It really is amazing. A steady healthy budget and improvement was imminent. It was always funny to read people complaining about lack of stickers on the McLaren Honda cars. Now look at the car and the team is still a failure. I don't think you have comprehended how massive McLaren's budget would have been with Ron and Honda still there. Ok there is a budget cap now but Ron's passion and vision would have meant sticking with Honda and the new wind tunnel would have already been built and in use by now. Oh and Alonso would have stayed longer and McLaren might still own their own bloody building.

McLaren are where they are now because of decisions by the owners, not because of Honda or Ron Dennis. McLaren have lost around 4-5 years of progress because of the owners bad decisions. They know that, Andreas Seidel knew that and that's why he asked for a new wind tunnel and they said yes.

Are u Ron's PR agent because I'm sick and tired to hear how good Ron was!!!
Yes he was good in the 80's and 90's but like most people over a certain age they are caught by the new wave and can't and won't addapt to the new reality,so please spare me with the "Ron the Midas"!!!

[Mostlyeels]

FYI someone worked out what the drag reduction (in percentage terms) of the DRS flap was at Jeddah for the various teams.

https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/co ... _analysis/

• Aston: 20.7%
• AT: 21.5%
• Merc: 23.8%
• Alfa: 27.7%
• McL: 27.9%
• Alpine: 28.0%
• Ferrari: 28.3%
• Williams: 30.4%
• Haas: 31.5%
• RedBull: 31.5%

[PlatinumZealot]

Just watched Jeddah. I'm really saddened by the state of the team I used to support and still do in some sense. I see only one solution to their problems....

SACK THE ZACK!!

[proteus]

Just watched Jeddah. I'm really saddened by the state of the team I used to support and still do in some sense. I see only one solution to their problems....

SACK THE ZACK!!

Sack the guy that saved the team...great thinking.

[Bill]

So McLaren knows which areas need to be improved, and that can feed into the upgrade for Baku. "If we look at the upgrade for Baku, then the figures look promising. Hopefully we can reach the fifth place with this. But that's not enough to achieve our season goals, because we want to have a top-4 car." After Baku, work on the car has to continue in order to make the big leap forward
https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel ... r-23032204

Wow, that’s aiming for 5th even assuming no further progress from competitors?

Could be a challenging year. In a way, this was needed. Aston setting things alight and showing what great talent can do even without the absolute ideal tools (that said- Merc wind tunnel must be an enormous advantage over our Cologne (Toyota) one?.

We have been caught out by Ferraris improvement, Astons ambition and execution, and have been left in no man’s land along with Alpine.

Glad to hear we’re on a hiring spree and I hope we pick the right talent to help us push the envelope.

Wind tunnel online in the summer is it?

redbull are using old windtunnel and doing better than merc and ferrari with their fancy tunnel.dont put too much faith that a new toy will save mclaren

[djos]

Just watched Jeddah. I'm really saddened by the state of the team I used to support and still do in some sense. I see only one solution to their problems....

SACK THE ZACK!!

Sack the guy that saved the team...great thinking.

I think someone forgot to turn their logic circuits on today.

Clearly it’s all Zac’s fault, after all he single handedly designed, built and constructed the car.

[littlebigcat]

redbull are using old windtunnel and doing better than merc and ferrari with their fancy tunnel.dont put too much faith that a new toy will save mclaren

Ah Red Bull's good old Tunnel of Theseus.

[mwillems]

Stella concedes upgrades 'will NOT be enough' as McLaren woes continue

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/10402 ... -upgrades/

Hugely dramatic headline, but Stella suggests the Baku upgrade will give us the 5th fastest car, targeting 4th fastest by year end.

Stella also says car isn't massively draggy, just not as efficient as they'd like. As most with half a brain already realised.

[mwillems]

redbull are using old windtunnel and doing better than merc and ferrari with their fancy tunnel.dont put too much faith that a new toy will save mclaren

Ah Red Bull's good old Tunnel of Theseus.

Triggers broom seems more appropriate

[f1rules]

when was mclaren not caught out By ferrari, by Honda, by the rules, by everything basicly, and first and foremost by themselves over and over and..., its a joke really
news as mentioned above from stella