2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[MTudor]

My god people here squirt so quickly their judgments

[mclaren111]

4 weeks! 4weeks! Thats a long time.

Will we get some bring back Ron Dennis posts? Some Lando should leave? Car is too slow? Zak should be sacked?

Facts - Car is slow & Ron Deniss is never coming back to Mclaren F1.
What if's? (Lando can leave or he can stay, I don't see why this should not be discussed here) &
Zak should be sacked or he should remain as CEO (He should leave If he fails to perform, I don't see why there would not be accountability for his position compared to any other position on the team and vice versa.

So yeah, 4 weeks is a long time

Whatever you think of Zak I think he is doing his job quite well. Yes, technically, he is at the head of the hierarchy tree. But it's a tree that extends to ALL of McLaren racing, not just F1. In that capacity I would say he's doing quite well considering how Indy and McLaren's other racing programs are going.

Secondly and probably more pertinent when it comes to F1 is the fact that he regularly admits that he is in almost no way involved in car design or development. He is a sponsor/money man. On that front can anyone really argue that he hasn't done a good job? He's almost completely turned McLaren racings finances around, during COVID no less when things were VERY precarious, and got the funding in place for major infrastructure projects which can only be a good thing. All a far cry from the end of the Ron Dennis Boullier era. For those with a short memory when Jost Capito was briefly at McLaren some years ago he put in major recommendations for infrastructure upgrades that were mostly refused. Some sources credit this as one of the reasons that the relationship broke down which resulted in him leaving early. For comparison sake, Zak Brown got the ball rolling and ensured that these projects go the green light.

If I see Zak go I'll be very sad.
As for Andrea, only time will tell.

Totally agree... Zak has done a great job... Hindsight being 20/20, signing Key might be his only mistake...

[mclaren111]

Whatever you think of Zak I think he is doing his job quite well. Yes, technically, he is at the head of the hierarchy tree. But it's a tree that extends to ALL of McLaren racing, not just F1. In that capacity I would say he's doing quite well considering how Indy and McLaren's other racing programs are going.

Secondly and probably more pertinent when it comes to F1 is the fact that he regularly admits that he is in almost no way involved in car design or development. He is a sponsor/money man. On that front can anyone really argue that he hasn't done a good job? He's almost completely turned McLaren racings finances around, during COVID no less when things were VERY precarious, and got the funding in place for major infrastructure projects which can only be a good thing. All a far cry from the end of the Ron Dennis Boullier era. For those with a short memory when Jost Capito was briefly at McLaren some years ago he put in major recommendations for infrastructure upgrades that were mostly refused. Some sources credit this as one of the reasons that the relationship broke down which resulted in him leaving early. For comparison sake, Zak Brown got the ball rolling and ensured that these projects go the green light.

If I see Zak go I'll be very sad.
As for Andrea, only time will tell.

I'm not saying Zak is doing a bad job, in contrary I also think he is still doing ok, not great but OK.

However, few people here think that we should not even discuss/critic his performance like is not a key part of the puzzle. Everyone in the team is an employee, and as such they are open to performance evaluation, I don't see a reason why Zak, regardless of his position in the team should be excluded from citric of fans/investors/board of directors or whoever else wanting his replacement, if they think he is not doing a good job.

People need to learn to give constructive critic but also accept one!

If we're honest, we'd score him very high for the job he's done so far. I remember when a new sponsor was revealed, this place was like a party atmosphere. From Ron's black empty car, to one sponsored by BAT, google, Cisco, Coca Cola etc. Also people can change history, as is common these days, but who honestly wasn't excited when we signed Ricciardo, even James Key. Dennis fell out with long time sponsors, who he should have kept and are still on the grid, like Mobil and Tag Heuer. A lot of people don't know this, but Dennis tried and failed to get a new wind tunnel, he didn't get approval from the local council. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to it being an outrageous building plan, instead of something practical. Zak hasn't run from the things that didn't work out, like Renault, Key, Ricciardo etc. He took action, instead of being to proud to look like he got it wrong. It was also genius to let Seidl go immediately when the chance came. Personally, I'd score him very high marks as someone at the top in a non technical capacity. Every decision he took made perfect sense at the time, those that didn't work out, got axed or replaced.

Spot On...

[Slahinki]

Not bad improvement for a car that's supposedly a "brick" and "slower than last year".

[haza]

https://i.redd.it/re11mgzh0wra1.png

Not bad improvement for a car that's supposedly a "brick" and "slower than last year".

No denying it has the drag of a brick but it has been quicker than last year at every gp I think McLarens top speed woes comes from running barn door rear wings to compensate for lack of downforce I noticed during the race when Perez was chasing down lando how good the car was in the first and final sectors in sector 1 lando was equal equal with checko sector 2 lost some 3-5 tenths and then gained the same 3-5 tenths back in the final sector

[Slahinki]

https://i.redd.it/re11mgzh0wra1.png

Not bad improvement for a car that's supposedly a "brick" and "slower than last year".

No denying it has the drag of a brick but it has been quicker than last year at every gp I think McLarens top speed woes comes from running barn door rear wings to compensate for lack of downforce I noticed during the race when Perez was chasing down lando how good the car was in the first and final sectors in sector 1 lando was equal equal with checko sector 2 lost some 3-5 tenths and then gained the same 3-5 tenths back in the final sector

As Lando noted in the video on twitter from a few pages back the DRS doesn't seem to do too much. But considering the overall state of the car and not having seen any development since September/November or so last year, I think it's pretty good. Makes me very hopeful of the Baku update and getting the new concept on the car over the course of the year.

[haza]

https://i.redd.it/re11mgzh0wra1.png

Not bad improvement for a car that's supposedly a "brick" and "slower than last year".

No denying it has the drag of a brick but it has been quicker than last year at every gp I think McLarens top speed woes comes from running barn door rear wings to compensate for lack of downforce I noticed during the race when Perez was chasing down lando how good the car was in the first and final sectors in sector 1 lando was equal equal with checko sector 2 lost some 3-5 tenths and then gained the same 3-5 tenths back in the final sector

As Lando noted in the video on twitter from a few pages back the DRS doesn't seem to do too much. But considering the overall state of the car and not having seen any development since September/November or so last year, I think it's pretty good. Makes me very hopeful of the Baku update and getting the new concept on the car over the course of the year.

Yeah only thing that really changed was it now has a larger undercut other than that an a few details on the floor it’s more or less the mcl36 with a different badge I wouldn’t get too exited about Baku upgrade it’s only the first iteration of this development path it will most likely just be a the first of many upgrades to get it up to speed so can’t expect the car to be 1 second quicker out the box it will be a steady build up over a few races to dial everything in

[bauc]

Whatever you think of Zak I think he is doing his job quite well. Yes, technically, he is at the head of the hierarchy tree. But it's a tree that extends to ALL of McLaren racing, not just F1. In that capacity I would say he's doing quite well considering how Indy and McLaren's other racing programs are going.

Secondly and probably more pertinent when it comes to F1 is the fact that he regularly admits that he is in almost no way involved in car design or development. He is a sponsor/money man. On that front can anyone really argue that he hasn't done a good job? He's almost completely turned McLaren racings finances around, during COVID no less when things were VERY precarious, and got the funding in place for major infrastructure projects which can only be a good thing. All a far cry from the end of the Ron Dennis Boullier era. For those with a short memory when Jost Capito was briefly at McLaren some years ago he put in major recommendations for infrastructure upgrades that were mostly refused. Some sources credit this as one of the reasons that the relationship broke down which resulted in him leaving early. For comparison sake, Zak Brown got the ball rolling and ensured that these projects go the green light.

If I see Zak go I'll be very sad.
As for Andrea, only time will tell.

I'm not saying Zak is doing a bad job, in contrary I also think he is still doing ok, not great but OK.

However, few people here think that we should not even discuss/critic his performance like is not a key part of the puzzle. Everyone in the team is an employee, and as such they are open to performance evaluation, I don't see a reason why Zak, regardless of his position in the team should be excluded from citric of fans/investors/board of directors or whoever else wanting his replacement, if they think he is not doing a good job.

People need to learn to give constructive critic but also accept one!

If we're honest, we'd score him very high for the job he's done so far. I remember when a new sponsor was revealed, this place was like a party atmosphere. From Ron's black empty car, to one sponsored by BAT, google, Cisco, Coca Cola etc. Also people can change history, as is common these days, but who honestly wasn't excited when we signed Ricciardo, even James Key. Dennis fell out with long time sponsors, who he should have kept and are still on the grid, like Mobil and Tag Heuer. A lot of people don't know this, but Dennis tried and failed to get a new wind tunnel, he didn't get approval from the local council. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to it being an outrageous building plan, instead of something practical. Zak hasn't run from the things that didn't work out, like Renault, Key, Ricciardo etc. He took action, instead of being to proud to look like he got it wrong. It was also genius to let Seidl go immediately when the chance came. Personally, I'd score him very high marks as someone at the top in a non technical capacity. Every decision he took made perfect sense at the time, those that didn't work out, got axed or replaced.

I agree with you on the success he had.

He also made one crucial mistake that people tend to forget, he lay off too many staff when battling with the financial crisis and with the anticipation of the cost cap, only to realize that they've overdone it by a mile! Once they faced the music on this, they started recruiting again to fill the gap that was wide open in the structure, especially in the aero department, a department that now is again heavily affected and underperforming, but like I said above, overall, given all the circumstances I think Zak is doing a OK job for now, I don't see a reason to change him.

[Slahinki]

No denying it has the drag of a brick but it has been quicker than last year at every gp I think McLarens top speed woes comes from running barn door rear wings to compensate for lack of downforce I noticed during the race when Perez was chasing down lando how good the car was in the first and final sectors in sector 1 lando was equal equal with checko sector 2 lost some 3-5 tenths and then gained the same 3-5 tenths back in the final sector

As Lando noted in the video on twitter from a few pages back the DRS doesn't seem to do too much. But considering the overall state of the car and not having seen any development since September/November or so last year, I think it's pretty good. Makes me very hopeful of the Baku update and getting the new concept on the car over the course of the year.

Yeah only thing that really changed was it now has a larger undercut other than that an a few details on the floor it’s more or less the mcl36 with a different badge I wouldn’t get too exited about Baku upgrade it’s only the first iteration of this development path it will most likely just be a the first of many upgrades to get it up to speed so can’t expect the car to be 1 second quicker out the box it will be a steady build up over a few races to dial everything in

Yeah, I'm more excited about the path that starts with the Baku update than necessarily the update itself. That said, I do hope we at least get signs of potential at Baku.

[Lucky]

For wind tunnel calibration?

[Motörhead]

I'm not saying Zak is doing a bad job, in contrary I also think he is still doing ok, not great but OK.

However, few people here think that we should not even discuss/critic his performance like is not a key part of the puzzle. Everyone in the team is an employee, and as such they are open to performance evaluation, I don't see a reason why Zak, regardless of his position in the team should be excluded from citric of fans/investors/board of directors or whoever else wanting his replacement, if they think he is not doing a good job.

People need to learn to give constructive critic but also accept one!

If we're honest, we'd score him very high for the job he's done so far. I remember when a new sponsor was revealed, this place was like a party atmosphere. From Ron's black empty car, to one sponsored by BAT, google, Cisco, Coca Cola etc. Also people can change history, as is common these days, but who honestly wasn't excited when we signed Ricciardo, even James Key. Dennis fell out with long time sponsors, who he should have kept and are still on the grid, like Mobil and Tag Heuer. A lot of people don't know this, but Dennis tried and failed to get a new wind tunnel, he didn't get approval from the local council. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to it being an outrageous building plan, instead of something practical. Zak hasn't run from the things that didn't work out, like Renault, Key, Ricciardo etc. He took action, instead of being to proud to look like he got it wrong. It was also genius to let Seidl go immediately when the chance came. Personally, I'd score him very high marks as someone at the top in a non technical capacity. Every decision he took made perfect sense at the time, those that didn't work out, got axed or replaced.

I agree with you on the success he had.

He also made one crucial mistake that people tend to forget, he lay off too many staff when battling with the financial crisis and with the anticipation of the cost cap, only to realize that they've overdone it by a mile! Once they faced the music on this, they started recruiting again to fill the gap that was wide open in the structure, especially in the aero department, a department that now is again heavily affected and underperforming, but like I said above, overall, given all the circumstances I think Zak is doing a OK job for now, I don't see a reason to change him.

Correction.
Most, and I do mean most, of the staff that were ‘let go’ when battling with the financial crisis and with the anticipation of the cost cap were Natural leavers. And by that I mean, staff that had signed a contract with another team and staff that were due to retire.
All that happened, is that they were not replaced and hence, the headcount was lowered naturally with very few redundancies having to take place.
Also, I will correct you on another point. James Key and his team was charged with making and delivering on this strategy.
Not Zak.

[mclaren111]

Didn't see this during the race on TV...

[bauc]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsypU5gWwAE ... name=small


Didn't see this during the race on TV...

Same, I guess this was early in the race, I can see PEREZ in the back.

[proteus]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsypU5gWwAE ... name=small


Didn't see this during the race on TV...

This was the reason why Oscar fell back for a while, it was shown but briefly.

[Big Tea]

Facts - Car is slow & Ron Deniss is never coming back to Mclaren F1.
What if's? (Lando can leave or he can stay, I don't see why this should not be discussed here) &
Zak should be sacked or he should remain as CEO (He should leave If he fails to perform, I don't see why there would not be accountability for his position compared to any other position on the team and vice versa.

So yeah, 4 weeks is a long time

Whatever you think of Zak I think he is doing his job quite well. Yes, technically, he is at the head of the hierarchy tree. But it's a tree that extends to ALL of McLaren racing, not just F1. In that capacity I would say he's doing quite well considering how Indy and McLaren's other racing programs are going.

Secondly and probably more pertinent when it comes to F1 is the fact that he regularly admits that he is in almost no way involved in car design or development. He is a sponsor/money man. On that front can anyone really argue that he hasn't done a good job? He's almost completely turned McLaren racings finances around, during COVID no less when things were VERY precarious, and got the funding in place for major infrastructure projects which can only be a good thing. All a far cry from the end of the Ron Dennis Boullier era. For those with a short memory when Jost Capito was briefly at McLaren some years ago he put in major recommendations for infrastructure upgrades that were mostly refused. Some sources credit this as one of the reasons that the relationship broke down which resulted in him leaving early. For comparison sake, Zak Brown got the ball rolling and ensured that these projects go the green light.

If I see Zak go I'll be very sad.
As for Andrea, only time will tell.

Totally agree... Zak has done a great job... Hindsight being 20/20, signing Key might be his only mistake...

Was it a mistake? We do not know who else was available at the time, it may have been Hobsons Choice.