[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[adrianjordan]

McLaren were in problems even before 2019. Can't blame the Covid.

I am not an expert on this, but what i understand is that the horrid performance road car division is what is dragging down the whole McLaren umbrella and the race team of course is the most visibly affected since F1 teams pretty much a financial knife edge.

You got a source for that? Because general consensus seems to be that the automotive division was growing and producing world beating supercars.

Their finances were precarious because they are young and were expanding rapidly. As a result they were particularly exposed to something like the pandemic. However the fact that they have very rich owners meant that they didn't really have to worry as they would be able to do exactly what they are doing - effectively a shareholders loan.

[Scorpaguy]

McLaren were in problems even before 2019. Can't blame the Covid.

I am not an expert on this, but what i understand is that the horrid performance road car division is what is dragging down the whole McLaren umbrella and the race team of course is the most visibly affected since F1 teams pretty much a financial knife edge.

You got a source for that? Because general consensus seems to be that the automotive division was growing and producing world beating supercars.

Their finances were precarious because they are young and were expanding rapidly. As a result they were particularly exposed to something like the pandemic. However the fact that they have very rich owners meant that they didn't really have to worry as they would be able to do exactly what they are doing - effectively a shareholders loan.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/indu ... nt-funding

The placing of blame could be a bit of "chicken or egg" timing arguments...but certainly appears serious.

[diffuser]

Of course it wasn't in the contract. No-one expected a global pandemic to delay the start of the season for half the year.

Yet you find no problem assigning blame to Renault for not giving a 1 million pound PU to McLaren out of the goodness of their heart.

No. They would have had to provide them for the races, so no. It's just yet another symptom of how Renault operate. Remember when Red Bull and Torro Rosso were leaving for Honda and TR suddenly found they were being given unreliable parts or having to scrape together old parts. Then there's the lack of grace over the handling of Daniel leaving to come to McLaren.

Actually, now I think about it, surely filming days would have been the contract.

Think McLaren already used those in March.

The whole TR Debacle was never confirmed. It was always a "he said, he said". Renault claimed the parts were refurbs like heads with new seals. While TR wanted newly casted heads(note this is a metaphor, not what actually occurred).

[Ground Effect]

Zak Brown interview

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... zak-brown/

[P1McLarenMercedes]

The car seems to be about half a second faster than what it was capable of in last year's race. Although ultimate race pace seems to be about the same. The race sim fastest lap was on par with his fastest lap in the race, although Sainz dipped into the 20's twice in the 2020 car vs only once in the 2019 car.

That's not that great though really? McLaren's pace in the race was poor until the last stint when Carlos was able to cut through some cars after the final safety car. Considering the improvement over 2019, half a second seems a bit slim to me.

[godlameroso]

The car seems to be about half a second faster than what it was capable of in last year's race. Although ultimate race pace seems to be about the same. The race sim fastest lap was on par with his fastest lap in the race, although Sainz dipped into the 20's twice in the 2020 car vs only once in the 2019 car.

That's not that great though really? McLaren's pace in the race was poor until the last stint when Carlos was able to cut through some cars after the final safety car. Considering the improvement over 2019, half a second seems a bit slim to me.

The cars are very close, so more falls on the driver's hands. Norris and Sainz have to earn their paycheck this season. Really, the whole team, as everything is going to make a difference. Development, pit stops, setup, mechanics, all have to be on point to gather as much data as possible during FP sessions. It's the beginning of a very testing season, the battle with Renault is going to be hard fought, and Racing point seems strong.

[Emag]

The car seems to be about half a second faster than what it was capable of in last year's race. Although ultimate race pace seems to be about the same. The race sim fastest lap was on par with his fastest lap in the race, although Sainz dipped into the 20's twice in the 2020 car vs only once in the 2019 car.

That's not that great though really? McLaren's pace in the race was poor until the last stint when Carlos was able to cut through some cars after the final safety car. Considering the improvement over 2019, half a second seems a bit slim to me.

But it is not 0.5
He is comparing last years race pace with this years testing race simulation, not tge same conditions. Compare it with the testing simulations of last year and the difference goes over 1 second (I think McLaren was doing 1.24s on the racing sims last year)

[cbbcisace]

Zak Brown interview

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... zak-brown/

Very interesting to see that Zac says the financial problems are solved...

[adrianjordan]

McLaren were in problems even before 2019. Can't blame the Covid.

I am not an expert on this, but what i understand is that the horrid performance road car division is what is dragging down the whole McLaren umbrella and the race team of course is the most visibly affected since F1 teams pretty much a financial knife edge.

You got a source for that? Because general consensus seems to be that the automotive division was growing and producing world beating supercars.

Their finances were precarious because they are young and were expanding rapidly. As a result they were particularly exposed to something like the pandemic. However the fact that they have very rich owners meant that they didn't really have to worry as they would be able to do exactly what they are doing - effectively a shareholders loan.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/indu ... nt-funding

The placing of blame could be a bit of "chicken or egg" timing arguments...but certainly appears serious.

When the likes of Renault (parent company not F1 Team) were having to face serious financial difficulties because of the Pandemic, the need to secure refinancing due to the Pandemic doesn't really support them being in trouble before the pandemic.

[adrianjordan]

Zak Brown interview

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... zak-brown/

Very interesting to see that Zac says the financial problems are solved...

They are. They got the loan they needed.

[_cerber1]

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... GuKy9.html

[godlameroso]

From the car thread. This is going to be a character defining season for McLaren. Everyone needs to be on point to beat their rivals, the drivers, pit crews, mechanics, engineers, sponsors, development. Everyone needs to focus and deliver, obviously this is true every season, however the competition is so close this year that every aspect of the team has to be firing on all cylinders.

If McLaren beats their rivals they'll have earned their mojo the hard way. With cars being roughly equal, Norris will have to show us what he's capable of as a driver. If he's beating Perez, Riccardo, Ocon, and the like he'll boost his stock tremendously. If he's fighting it out with Stroll, the Williams and Haas, while Sainz is taking it to Renault, it's going to hurt his career.

Norris has the speed, which is good, you can't teach that, now it's a matter of consistency and limiting errors as any and all errors will be more costly this season. Hopefully he doesn't have to deal with twitch chat behind the wheel.

[P1McLarenMercedes]

The car seems to be about half a second faster than what it was capable of in last year's race. Although ultimate race pace seems to be about the same. The race sim fastest lap was on par with his fastest lap in the race, although Sainz dipped into the 20's twice in the 2020 car vs only once in the 2019 car.

That's not that great though really? McLaren's pace in the race was poor until the last stint when Carlos was able to cut through some cars after the final safety car. Considering the improvement over 2019, half a second seems a bit slim to me.

But it is not 0.5
He is comparing last years race pace with this years testing race simulation, not tge same conditions. Compare it with the testing simulations of last year and the difference goes over 1 second (I think McLaren was doing 1.24s on the racing sims last year)

Ok, so if we took the car in Abu Dhabi, and raced it in Spain, how much quicker do you think it would be than the race in May? I'd hope half a second otherwise it could be considered that McLaren didnt develop that much in 2019.

[Emag]

That's not that great though really? McLaren's pace in the race was poor until the last stint when Carlos was able to cut through some cars after the final safety car. Considering the improvement over 2019, half a second seems a bit slim to me.

But it is not 0.5
He is comparing last years race pace with this years testing race simulation, not tge same conditions. Compare it with the testing simulations of last year and the difference goes over 1 second (I think McLaren was doing 1.24s on the racing sims last year)

Ok, so if we took the car in Abu Dhabi, and raced it in Spain, how much quicker do you think it would be than the race in May? I'd hope half a second otherwise it could be considered that McLaren didnt develop that much in 2019.

It might seem like it isn't much, but 0.5 per lap is huge over a race distance. In fact if McLaren had a 0.5s / lap faster car in Spain last year, they would be 33 seconds faster over the whole 66 laps compared to the actual 2019 car.
Anyway, depending on what McLaren focused on during development last year, perhaps in Spain they wouldn't have been that much faster with the Abu Dhabi car than in China for example (I am assuming most of the development last year was about strengthening the front-end). Nevertheless, if they made up 0.5 seconds relative to the competition in front with this year's car, that means that on average during the races they will be up to 30 seconds faster, which is not bad at all.

[bauc]

Zak Brown interview

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... zak-brown/

Very interesting to see that Zac says the financial problems are solved...

They are. They got the loan they needed.

Yes, its official

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15021 ... of-bahrain