Mclaren Honda 2015

[turbof1]

I probably should have quoted the full press release from mclaren, my apologies for that.

It's nothing more tnen a precaution. Perez also missed out on the next GP when he crashed in 2011 at Monaco. The issue is you that a concussion followed up by another one in a short amount of time will have an increased chance for brain damage.

[Phil]

There is simply NO way in life Alonso would have signed to drive with Mclaren if he wasn't guaranteed that he'd be having a damn good car for the 2015 season.

I can honestly can't think of a way McLaren could have made a promise like the one you are infering in any possible way. Not for 2015. What Mercedes promised Lewis before 2013 for 2014 was very different - everyone knew that in 2014 the 'formula' would change significantly and that aero (RedBull territory) would be less crucial and that engine, a strength of Mercedes, would be a huge, if not the biggest factor. It was on this premise alone that it was easy to believe that Mercedes had a lot of potential going for it. That, and the fact that many engineers were heading to Mercedes.

I'm really not sure what McLaren would have been able to "promise" Fernando, beyond the point that Honda may have an advantage because they could follow the 2014 season without being restrained by any engine freeze because they weren't part of the championship and therefore not bound by contract like the 3 other engine manufacturers. This, and perhaps that McLaren has a huge operating budget it can throw at. In other words potential. Beyond that though, I really have no idea what anyone at McLaren could promise while keeping a straight face. There is no significant change in rules going from 2014 into 2015, so there is no huge benefit in coming a year late. Just a lot of catch up. Hence why Fernando, and even Ron has said numerous times that this is a long term project, hence why they wanted to sign Fernando for not only a single year, but multi-year contract.

Fernando signed, not because of any wishful prospects in 2015, but because his relationship at Ferrari was growing stale, the shuffle with Mattiacci didn't help - and after 5 years of driving for the Scuderia, he still hasn't won any WDC. He needed as much a change as did Ferrari. And his options were limited. I don't think McLaren was his first choice - it was more so, his only choice. RedBull didn't want him, neither did Mercedes (since they already have drivers under contract who they are committed to long-term), so the only other team with potential, a big budget and the unknown factor ('Honda'), was McLaren. So, why not risk something, like Lewis did, earn big bucks and have a change of environment?

But promise for "success in 2015" despite the dominance Mercedes showed in 2014 with little changes in the rules? Not a chance in hell. Fernando knew that any success he may or may not have at McLaren is long-term, not short. Sure, no one quite expected them to struggle that much during testing, but McLaren has made some overal good choices (lots of potential) with the signing of Prodromou, restructuring and the Honda factor. But this always going to take a little time.

[bauc]

Interesting interview with Mr Yasuhisa Arai

On the power unit everything is working well," Arai said. "The system itself is very good and ready to race … I still have big ambitions. We are already fixed at hardware and software and have confirmed our final data for Melbourne. I think there is no problem."

Source: http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 93297.html

[Raleigh]

snip - late

[Vasconia]

Interesting interview with Mr Yasuhisa Arai

On the power unit everything is working well," Arai said. "The system itself is very good and ready to race … I still have big ambitions. We are already fixed at hardware and software and have confirmed our final data for Melbourne. I think there is no problem."

Source: http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 93297.html

Reality is quite stubborn in this aspect and this PU has huge realiability problems, specieally with the hybrid-side. The is an enormous amount of work to do, so he should be more cautious.

[Vasconia]

I hope people don't miss the bit that said:

Minimise the chances of second impact syndrome, as is normal medical procedure when treating athletes after concussions.

We've seen this in other sports where participants are told to rest after concussion.

Absolutely, a second impact could be very dangerous so I think its the best idea. Moreover, this race is going to be a disaster for Mclaren, I dont think that Alonso is going to loose a huge amount of points..

[diffuser]

Interesting interview with Mr Yasuhisa Arai

On the power unit everything is working well," Arai said. "The system itself is very good and ready to race … I still have big ambitions. We are already fixed at hardware and software and have confirmed our final data for Melbourne. I think there is no problem."

Source: http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 93297.html

Reality is quite stubborn in this aspect and this PU has huge realiability problems, specieally with the hybrid-side. The is an enormous amount of work to do, so he should be more cautious.

...not sure what you're expecting him to say ???? In the end it doesn't matter what he says, it will not have any effect on the results in Australia.

[NathanOlder]

Very true but it will effect the reaction to the results from Australia. The guy seems sure they will have the reliability, so hopefully he knows exactly what he's talking about

[frosty125]

So Scarbs thinks the MP4-30 is a year ahead in integration between chassis and PU but thinks the team would be happy if one car finishes one of the first four races...

[maguetox]

Interesting interview with Mr Yasuhisa Arai

On the power unit everything is working well," Arai said. "The system itself is very good and ready to race … I still have big ambitions. We are already fixed at hardware and software and have confirmed our final data for Melbourne. I think there is no problem."

Source: http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 93297.html

This lack of reality is what is hurting this Honda program. He maybe is good on the technical side but on the integration he is not that good.

[cirrusflyer]

So Scarbs thinks the MP4-30 is a year ahead in integration between chassis and PU but thinks the team would be happy if one car finishes one of the first four races...

Does this mean the Mp4-30 is now on the level of other cars in the integration of the PU( skipping one year of gathering info and starting aggressively ), or one year ahead of the opposition ( even more aggressive than others )?

[Avocado]

or one year ahead of the opposition ( even more aggressive than others )?

This.

[frosty125]

Does this mean the Mp4-30 is now on the level of other cars in the integration of the PU( skipping one year of gathering info and starting aggressively ), or one year ahead of the opposition ( even more aggressive than others )?

Scarbs thinks it is one year ahead of the rest and if he didn't mean that I'm sure he can pop by and correct us

"well the McLaren and Honda design is absolutely fantastic. I mean it is clearly a year ahead of what everyone else is doing with their chassis and power units. They both had the opportunity to see how the rules have evolved since last year, see what other teams have been doing with their engine packaging and worked very well together during the design stage to come up with what they describe as the size-zero rear end, and if you look at everything behind the driver, behind the cockpit everything just shrinks down and shrinks in at the back of the car, the car is very tightly packaged. They have rearranged lots of parts around the car, understanding how hot things can get and brought body work into areas where other teams have been a little conservative."

"McLaren... chances of finishing...realistically have almost no chance of finishing, if you are going to be a realist about this, which is hard for me to say because I hugely respect the engineers at McLaren and Honda, but there is nothing we have seen that gives you confidence that, that car can run, the two cars the full race distance without problems." " In all realism it is unlikely they will get a race finished... If they get one car to finish a race in the first four fly-aways they will think that is a success"

“I have no doubt that the Honda engine from what I understand from people inside McLaren, the Honda engine is as powerful as last years Mercedes.”

I think the first 4 races will be a highly expensive global testing tour for McLaren and Honda.

[Vasconia]

Absolutely, but specially Bahrein with the high temperatures and the long straight, if they can run normally in this race they should be super happy.

[ChrisF1]

To be honest, I am going into this season and expecting the Mclaren cars failing to even start races - they'll probably be starting the car on a Sunday morning and finding the damn thing needs a part change, and it's 3 hours to fix it, no time to get it done...

We saw teams last year that had failures on the morning, and I remember some very rushed repair jobs where teams got out within minutes of the pitlane closing (Happened to Lewis one race didn't it?)

The comments from Scarbs at least give me some hope for a salvage to Mclarens season. I fear that this season could be a long and painful goodbye to F1 for Jenson Button, and it certainly wouldn't be a fitting end to a career for one of Britain's best F1 ambassadors.