Amazon Prime "Grand Prix Driver"

[nzjrs]

Overall I enjoyed the series. I agree the pacing was a bit off, the first 3 episodes were great and then they just rushed through the 4th.

Some random thoughts;

• despite being produced by McLaren, they don't really come of blameless. While I'm not able to say if their car production was more off-schedule than other teams, production certainly was not running smoothly.
• there were no Honda personnel shown at the McLaren factory. There was no mention of any collaboration between the two. There was no expectation of what the new power unit would bring. From how the relationship is presented, I get the impression that McLaren were not regularly in Sakura either
• if the divorce wasn't pre-destined through chronically bad management/performance in 2016, then it looks absolutely clear that McLaren decided the partnership was over after the first winter test
• Zak Brown comes across as reasonable, obviously not a factory guy, was clearly focusing on the commercial stuff. Boullier comes off as though he is out of his depth and unprepared. Jonathan Neale comes across very well and competent
• The 2017 livery seems to be an after-thought and weirdly mismanaged. I'm surprised the drivers had no input, and honestly noone seems to love it. I think the director judiciously cut of Alonso mid sentance when he was saying "The fans designed lots of liveries with Orange... and they were all better than this piece of XXX"

Honestly as much as the PU was a disappointment, if the future of your team so heavily depends on it (as they mentioned many times), then it is a complete and total engineering management / project management failure when you are as surprised as McLaren were. I can't believe Boullier (or whoever was in charge) wasn't in Sakura weekly over the winter.

[bauc]

I just finished watching all 4 episodes, and I think it was a real representation on how things were and there was no low blows towards Honda or anything like that, it was as real as it can get. Overall I'm pleased to see how the actual car is build, how the livery was decided ect... great insight into the workings of my favorite team.

[nzjrs]

I just finished watching all 4 episodes, and I think it was a real representation on how things were and there was no low blows towards Honda or anything like that, it was as real as it can get. Overall I'm pleased to see how the actual car is build, how the livery was decided ect... great insight into the workings of my favorite team.

I agree, and should have also made that point. It didn't seem to me there were any low-blows towards Honda either.

[Redragon]

The first test of the car after the oil tank, Alonso mention problems of brakes and suspension and stops.becauae considers the car is too dangerous to drive, vibrattions problems start to appear after the third change of engine while Vandorme test on second day. We can continue blaming Honda but Maclren finish to mount the car 1 hour before sending it to Barcelona.

[adrianjordan]

To the people critical of the "All targets from Mclaren side were hit" speech.

I would have done the same. It's what is know as a pep talk, rallying the troops as it were. The team must have been so utterly despondent after the first test that they needed well and truly picking up.

[McMika98]

To the people critical of the "All targets from Mclaren side were hit" speech.

I would have done the same. It's what is know as a pep talk, rallying the troops as it were. The team must have been so utterly despondent after the first test that they needed well and truly picking up.

I thought Mclaren Honda was a team in 2017. All that beleive in MclarenHonda when in fact it was Mclaren vs Honda before Australia. On hindsight all those report of Alonso parking a good car and shaming the engine must be a fact. The garage must have been very toxic.

Again one wonders how low level teams motivate their staff who prolly have no shot at title. Lets blame this and blame that. Thats what its come to these days be it football or any other sport lets just start pointing fingers and feel good about us.

[nzjrs]

On hindsight all those report of Alonso parking a good car and shaming the engine must be a fact.

To me it demonstrates the opposite. It was clear that the relationship was over at the winter test. With that knowledge I believe there would have been insufficient motivation for Alonso do do anything like this. The decision had already been made.

[McMika98]

Spent the whole weekend watching the series in loop. The detail on the assemblies are so good, worth capturing every stills. Some easter eggs for me, ep3 in a crisis meeting showing risk items on excel, camouflage is spelt incorrectly but ive seen worse spelling mistakes in a high level meeting. My biggest pet peeve with the whole composite industry is the widespread use of pencil grinders. The carbon dust coming from these parts i feel is the next asbestos in the making. I was quite shocked none of the guys had a mask on.

[Jolle]

To the people critical of the "All targets from Mclaren side were hit" speech.

I would have done the same. It's what is know as a pep talk, rallying the troops as it were. The team must have been so utterly despondent after the first test that they needed well and truly picking up.

I haven’t seen the series because I don’t have Prime, but reading the setup and story here, could is also be a bit (well, a lot) of a clever commercial by Brown to sell McLaren to potential investors? “Mclaren is still good, it was all Honda, please sponsor us”. In other words, is it the whole story?

[bauc]

To the people critical of the "All targets from Mclaren side were hit" speech.

I would have done the same. It's what is know as a pep talk, rallying the troops as it were. The team must have been so utterly despondent after the first test that they needed well and truly picking up.

I haven’t seen the series because I don’t have Prime, but reading the setup and story here, could is also be a bit (well, a lot) of a clever commercial by Brown to sell McLaren to potential investors? “Mclaren is still good, it was all Honda, please sponsor us”. In other words, is it the whole story?

All episodes are on youtube, check it out

[Jolle]

To the people critical of the "All targets from Mclaren side were hit" speech.

I would have done the same. It's what is know as a pep talk, rallying the troops as it were. The team must have been so utterly despondent after the first test that they needed well and truly picking up.

I haven’t seen the series because I don’t have Prime, but reading the setup and story here, could is also be a bit (well, a lot) of a clever commercial by Brown to sell McLaren to potential investors? “Mclaren is still good, it was all Honda, please sponsor us”. In other words, is it the whole story?

All episodes are on youtube, check it out

Thanx!

[Thunder]

Actually i thought they sold their relationship pretty good. No big cheap shots.
The biggest takeaway for me is that it just showed that McLaren Honda never really was a "works" relationship. Just a few Honda Guys flying in with the new Engine, McLaren having to ask Honda for the Drawing of the mounting Pin.....

Edit: There are some Clips of the Documentary (and even some i don't remember seeing in the Docu) on the Amazon Prime Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/amazonstudios/videos

[adrianjordan]

Actually i thought they sold their relationship pretty good. No big cheap shots.
The biggest takeaway for me is that it just showed that McLaren Honda never really was a "works" relationship. Just a few Honda Guys flying in with the new Engine, McLaren having to ask Honda for the Drawing of the mounting Pin.....

Edit: There are some Clips of the Documentary on the Amazon Prime Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/amazonstudios/videos

This!!

I wonder how the new Renault relationship compares??

[bosanac1]

Keep in mind this is show so maybe things are exaggerated for entertainment purposes.


...................

First 3 episodes were interesting.
4th episode felt like lets just rush through this, we can't show any FIA/FOM coverage.

Things that were interesting for me:

-McLaren set themselves up like they were not on speaking terms with Honda, that whole segment was so biased against Honda
-There doesn't seem to be good organization in McLaren the floor being not done, rushed suspension design etc
-Eric sure has obsession with Alonso
-McLaren lack of title sponsor for several years is baffling

[Andres125sx]

It was just testing, there was an entire season to push for given they had to stick it out with Honda regardless. I agree he had to tell the truth and be critical but there are diplomatical ways of expressing the same truth and bracing for a tough season. They gave up on the season after testing and what followed during the season was even disastrous.
Honda delivered on the timeline just not on the performance benchmark. The reasons for which can be discussed in the engine thread of this forum.
I feel Alonso is the white elephant in the room, i love the guy and root for him but as a company id rather look out for my future interest than placate him. Last year with all the honda funds, free engine and corporate sponsors the team was the only team to make a financial loss. This year the sponsors have left in droves and nothing significant has come in to balance his hefty price tag. To paraphrase Eric, the domino effect will be rolling fast.

So you agree Honda was a disaster, add McLaren was also disastrous at some aspects, and your idea to solve this is firing Alonso, the only part in the team who performed as expected?