Vodafone McLaren Team 2012

[LHamilton]

Personally, I get the feeling Whitmarsh is regreting letting Hamilton go. He cant be that confident in Perez, who hasnt looked that promising after he signed for McLaren, and a Button who has branded MP4-27 as the worst car hes driven. Good that next years car is just an evolution of this years car.

Watch Hamilton being infront of both McLarens when next season is done and dusted, even if the Mercedes would be quite a lot slower.

[Bomber_Pilot]

they are stuck with a young kid and an old chap, who can easily flunk if the car doesn't behave according to his liking.

Good point. Button is extremely sensitive to the handling characteristics of the car, when he gets it right then he can be very strong (e.g. australia), but you only have to look at races like Canada this year where Lewis pulled out a win and Button was languishing down out of the points. Perez is an unknown quantity really, and I fear that his style is "just right" for this year's tyres which has made him look immense - I think McLaren overreacted, and should've pinched someone like Rosberg who has shown clear speed in a realm of different conditions. Hulkenberg even is a better candidate imo.

I do agree with that statement to some degree, but what I believe to be the biggest contributor to Perez looking immense this year was him qualifying just outside of the top ten. Those were the only times when he actually produced a good race result. Starting on the harder tire, then chasing the leaders with fresh softer ones. When Monty said that Perez isn't in the running to replace Massa because he needs more experience, I thought to myself what a bunch of bollocks. Now I agree with him. As you said, they should have gone for Hulkenberg.

[ringo]

Personally, I get the feeling Whitmarsh is regreting letting Hamilton go. He cant be that confident in Perez, who hasnt looked that promising after he signed for McLaren, and a Button who has branded MP4-27 as the worst car hes driven. Good that next years car is just an evolution of this years car.

Watch Hamilton being infront of both McLarens when next season is done and dusted, even if the Mercedes would be quite a lot slower.

I dont think that mercedes is gonna be slow. They have a star team of engineers now, and that was my main complaint with them. They didnt purge out the mediocre engineers out of the system. The car may be like this year's lotus.

[McMrocks]

AUS - Bad strategy for Hamilton.
MAL - Bad strategy for both i think but definitely for Hamilton, pit stop problems for Hamilton.
CHI - Pit stop problem for Button.
BAH - Pit stop problem for Hamilton, Exhaust/Differential for Button.
ESP - Underfuelled Hamilton.
MON - Bad strategy for Hamilton. Fuel problem for Button.
CAN - Brilliant.
VAL - Just a really bad day i guess and probably a bit of everything here.
GBR - Bad strategy for Hamilton, should have kept him out longer.
GER - Pit stops now start to become world class with Button´s record pit stop.
HUN - Brilliant
BEL - Brilliant
ITA - Brilliant
SIN - Gearbox problem for Hamilton.
JAP - Suspension problem for Hamilton.
KOR - Suspension problem for Hamilton.
IND - Downshift problem causing them to change the steering wheel in pits.
ABU - Fuel problem for Hamilton.

I think that if you were to compare this with HRT´s season it would not look that much more different.

thank you. it looks terrible. where is the perfection of former years gone? Next season must be better. Otherwise Whitmarsh will not have his job much longer - even i like whitmarsh

anyway i have the feeling that McLaren AND Hamilton will regret their decisions. McLaren will have Perez who is driving fast if he won the setup gambling and Hamilton will have a car which takes the half year to understand it.

[matt_b]

AUS - Bad strategy for Hamilton.
MAL - Bad strategy for both i think but definitely for Hamilton, pit stop problems for Hamilton.
CHI - Pit stop problem for Button.
BAH - Pit stop problem for Hamilton, Exhaust/Differential for Button.
ESP - Underfuelled Hamilton.
MON - Bad strategy for Hamilton. Fuel problem for Button.
CAN - Brilliant.
VAL - Just a really bad day i guess and probably a bit of everything here.
GBR - Bad strategy for Hamilton, should have kept him out longer.
GER - Pit stops now start to become world class with Button´s record pit stop.
HUN - Brilliant
BEL - Brilliant
ITA - Brilliant
SIN - Gearbox problem for Hamilton.
JAP - Suspension problem for Hamilton.
KOR - Suspension problem for Hamilton.
IND - Downshift problem causing them to change the steering wheel in pits.
ABU - Fuel problem for Hamilton.

I think that if you were to compare this with HRT´s season it would not look that much more different.

Just to add to that Button had a fuel pickup failure in Italy. Lewis had a diff failure in Germany. Just gets better and better eh, 3 perfect race weekends out of 18. I dont understand why all their reliability problems happen on Race Day and never Free Practice where they can do something about it, big pattern there.

[banibhusan]

I still dont see an engine failure in the list though..May be that's next in the agenda!!

[matt_b]

I still dont see an engine failure in the list though..May be that's next in the agenda!!

Nah they're saving the engine failure for Brazil, Hydraulics failure in Austin, then its a full house of calamities in a season

[McG]

That said, McLaren clearly know how to make a fast car and to get a race win all you need is a fairly fast car and a bit of luck.

Mclaren does not really have bad luck you know. That would have been the case if they only had once and a while a technical problem, but this is systematic: from monza till yas marina they were having technical problems. Furthermore, whitmarsh is happy to tell all those breakdowns were unrelated and only one-off. That is a man in deny for you right there. The problems might not be technically related, but when you are having these problems over and over again, each race, then you cant beat around the bush anymore. Then there is either something very wrong with the production of the parts, or with checking up the parts. Either way they should stop fool themselves that these problems will go away. If this was Ron Dennis these issues would be long solved already.

Most teams have systematic problems every year in a variety of ways, the cars are prototypes. All the teams have had problems this year. McLaren more so than Red Bull and Ferrari? Maybe, but not by much, that's the way it goes sometimes. No team including McLaren are "fooling themselves" as you put it, technical failures are almost guaranteed.

And leave off Martin Whitmarsh. Ron Dennis had a lot of terrible years.

[GrizzleBoy]

There is no top team on the grid with such a consistent/long running string of failings that not even the back markers have.

Except for McLaren.

There's a difference between not understanding how to develop a car and:
-failing to properly use a jack (China and more)
-changing a tyre and leaving the old tyre sitting in front of your drivers wheels as he drives off (Valencia).
-pressing the "take fuel out" button instead of the "put fuel in" button (Barcelona).
-etc etc etc

Developing a F1 car is actually a monumental task and is extremely difficult.

Pressing the right button when refuelling, not leaving old tyres in front of your drivers car during pit stops and using a jack are all standard procedure and failing any of them is what rookies do.

[McMrocks]

At least Button drove 12 Laps. =D>

[myurr]

Incredible back to back laps from Hamilton. At least he ran Vettel close!

[Joie de vivre]

McLaren will struggle next year with Button and Perez. They have brought that up by themselves.

[astracrazy]

it makes you think where Hamilton would be without the Mclaren mistakes or failures

He would of got 50 points in the last 2 gps alone. I'd imagine he'd be in Vettel's position of this championship or even further.

Its such a shame because his been in great form.

Mclaren unfortunately would get my vote for worse team of the season

[Morteza]

it makes you think where Hamilton would be without the Mclaren mistakes or failures

He would of got 50 points in the last 2 gps alone. I'd imagine he'd be in Vettel's position of this championship or even further.

Its such a shame because his been in great form.

Mclaren unfortunately would get my vote for worse team of the season

I'm sorry, but honor goes to Mercedes. The sad thing is that Lewis is going there

[astracrazy]

i guess the reason why Mclraren beat them to worse team of the year, is Hamilton feels a better future at Mercedes