Morteza wrote: ↑14 Jan 2019, 16:18
Manoah2u wrote: ↑14 Jan 2019, 14:03
Still think it was a mistake to get rid of the VW guy and by doing so delaying Mclaren's revalidation unneccesarily.
They got rid of him because he was hired by Ron, I guess. He was with McLaren for half a year if I remember correctly! Anyhow, so far Zack Brown has done some nice signings and restructuring IMHO.
Oh i'm not saying Zak isn't doing his job well.
Matter of fact, i think he's doing that pretty good.
It seems the atmosphere @ Mclaren is starting to become more relaxed.
whether that's positive, we'll find out in due time.
Kicking out the biggest error Mclaren made since spygate called Eric Bouillier was the best thing they could have done, even though they should've done that a year before.
Still, i think it would have saved Mclaren a lot of trouble and they'd been in a better position if they kept the VW guy. Offcourse i don't know what deals were made before ron's departure and what discussions happend after that, but i believe there could have been a reboot much earlier if he was present. It's going to take time for the changes to come into effect.
Meanwhile, the horrible pitstop quality of Mclaren is just embarassing and shows just how deep they have sunken.
Additionally, in my personal opinion, this only further shows Alonso's patience and amazing capability seeing how he still managed to bring in that wreck in respectable places, even though there was nothing respectable about the car and team itself.
I don't believe Renault is the right answer for Mclaren, but we will have to wait and see.
Must note though, that i do believe splitting with Honda was the right thing to do for both parties. Mclaren, how it was, how it dealt with things, in the recent past untill now, was not something that would have seen come a fruitful partnership. You can see how much better Honda did with the RB/TR partnership approach.
I do believe, that if this 'change' at Mclaren keeps going into the right direction, that the Honda partnership COULD work in about 2 seasons further down the road. BUT, that ship has sailed permanently anyway due to the recent past.
Mclaren won't be having any title chances for the coming 5 years for sure though. With Renault, that's never going to happen since the works team is out there too. Only if there was no works team, they would manage, but with the works team eyeing a WCC in the near future, that's just not gonna happen.
So if they want to become WCC, they are going to need a different engine, which there is not, and will not be one in the near future either.
Add to that, i don't believe Mclaren has a driver lineup remotely capable of being WDC or getting the team into WCC territory. Not now, not next year, not even in 5 years. Lando has to learn and ripen, and is a huge question mark, but for starters lacks a car even remotely capable of WCC. Sainz is definately a fast and talented driver, but lacks that WDC edge that guys like Ricciardo, Verstappen, Vettel, Hamilton, etc. do have. As for Sainz, i'd place him into the Grosjean, Bottas, Perez, Hulkenberg territory. without a doubt F1 worthy, definately an asset for any team, but not a chance on being WCC.
