Mclaren Mercedes 2014

[beelsebob]

20 views, then you have to pay. or use proxy. personally I do the latter.

While I dislike the paywall, that's no reason to illegally access their content. They made it, and they can choose how it's distributed - if that requires you to pay, you should pay, or not look at it.

[Juzh]

20 views, then you have to pay. or use proxy. personally I do the latter.

While I dislike the paywall, that's no reason to illegally access their content. They made it, and they can choose how it's distributed - if that requires you to pay, you should pay, or not look at it.

Illegal access? As far as I'm aware using proxies is not illegal in any way, shape or form. Secondary benefits are irrelevant.
I could as well just pick up my smart phone and look up their content that way. Then I could pick up another phone and do it again. Or I could just do it on a laptop. All legal means, it just happens proxy is more convenient.

[Thunder]

It's quite tough lately to really believe Macca will come back Performance wise this Year. I for One will from now on skip the first half of the Season out of Judgement and only look at the second half in hope there will be some serious Progress as EB continously states.

[Holm86]

I wonder why EB made at statement about McLaren being very aggresive this season when it comes to developing the car. And so far not much has been going on. Not visually at least. A team with such resources as McLaren should be able to have developed the car more by now. Are they perhaps working on a major update of the car?? A spec B car almost??

[Phil]

Jenson's job is drive a race car and deliver points,NOT develop it. He provides feedback for others develop, and I believe whenever it has been questioned we have heard nothing by praise regarding his feedback.

I believe the problem with Button as a good development driver has to do with him requiring a car that suits his style - arguably more so, than some other drivers.

Lets take the 2012 season. Beginning to mid way through the season, Button had completely lost his way with the car and completely struggled. This was especially noticable, as Lewis, on the other hand, was flying in the same car. If we ignore what Lewis achieved in those races and solely rate the teams performance on what Button achieved, we'd be looking at an array of no-points finishes. At Button's highest low, he was down in 18th, a couple of 16th and some races where he *just* made it into the points. I think the highest low point was Canada, where Button finished 16th, while Lewis won the race.

Now, I'm not saying that Lewis is the better development driver - not at all. But it is through Lewis's performance in those races that we can see that the car obviously was more capable of then what Button was achieving with it. If this hadn't been the case, who knows what direction the development as a whole might have taken on? But because one of the drivers was performing, at times winning, the team was able to judge what the car is capable of and perhaps focus on areas they might not have otherwise.

Coming back to Lewis - there are other races too, where Button clearly got more out of the car, than he did. In these races, it was just as important to Lewis to know that perhaps at times, he was the limiting factor, and not the car - just as today, Vettel might have to concede that he is not getting the most out of the car while his team-mate is getting more.

Now, fast forward to 2014 (and perhaps it also applies to 2013) where you have Button and a relatively inexperienced team-mate and both are more or less neck at neck in how they are performing. It does raise the question a bit: Are both struggling to reach the potential of the car due to them not getting the most out of themselves and the car - or because the car is severly lacking? IMO - the truth is somewhere in the middle. Button is a driver who perhaps needs a car to suit his style - this makes him a little vulnerable to when the car isn't. It takes a team-mate in this cases to show him, that there's more that he can extract from it. Right now, Kevin might not be the team-mate who is doing that - perhaps through his own inexperience.

A driver might not be solely responsible for the development of the car - but he certainly does influence it. And if you have two similar drivers, there's ultimately less information the team can lean on when making their assessment. There's no doubt that the McLaren so far is far off the pace - but I'm willing to bet that a driver, perhaps like Lewis has demonstrated a few times, would be able to eek out just a little more performance here and there when the car is not at its best. And that information could be very helpful to a team and their engineers when assessing the relative performance and development direction of the car.

Both Kevin and Button are no doubt extremely capable drivers. But perhaps, in this phase - the team would greatly benefit from a driver who is less dependant on a particular car characteristic just to give that little more data - or to push the not-performing drivers by showing that "more is possible".

Just my 2 cents.

[mclaren111]

What a S*** weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We need a B Spec car that works very fast !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mikeerfol]

Button and Vandoorne will drive in this week's test. I'm a bit surprised JB drives and not Kevin, it shows how badly McLaren want to improve (and hopefully won't do the same mistake they did 2 years ago in Mugello)

[FoxHound]

I wonder why EB made at statement about McLaren being very aggresive this season when it comes to developing the car. And so far not much has been going on. Not visually at least. A team with such resources as McLaren should be able to have developed the car more by now. Are they perhaps working on a major update of the car?? A spec B car almost??

It's in keeping with alot of the press releases this season. Some very bullish statements, which have failed to materialise into anything visibly better.

[kooleracer]

I don't understand people saying focus on 2015, are the rules of 2015 that different from 2014? Only major thing is that the car is 10kg heavier i think. There are no big changes to the RW or FW like this year. So everything you develop right now is useful for next year.

One thing that is certain - even if Mercedes continue to dominate - is that Red Bull will not switch their focus to 2015 early.

"I think on the chassis side whatever you learn this year will be relevant for next year anyway so we are just going to push like hell all the way through the year to the final race in Abu Dhabi," Horner revealed.

McLaren has been under performing for a because of bad calls in the past. Also the concept off changing designer every year has cost them because the lack of consistency that brings. Also choosing not to develop the fastest car in 2012 for 2013 was a bad decision. Their driver line-up is at the moment the weakest in the past 10 years.

With Sam Michael, Jonanthan Neale and Tim Goss, Neil Oatley their isn't a clear leader. I hope with Prodromou joining they will look at their management structure and start to change it. I think when Ron stepped down to many people got to make decisions. The have to many directors Eric Boullier(RD) , Tim Goss (TD), Sam Michael (SD), Simon Roberts (OD), Neil Oatley (Director of Design & Development), Jonathan Neale (MD). Their is no de facto leader which has hurt them massively the last few years. McLaren needs to restructure ASAP, where many teams are splitting roles McLaren needs to simplify their structure by merging roles together.

They have a Racing Director, Technical Director, Sporting Director, Operations Director, Chief Operating Officer & stand-in CEO, Director of Design and Development Programmes and McLaren Group CEO (Ron Dennis). Who is running things and who is responsible for what part. Also McLaren has done a lot of in-house promoting at a fast pace the last few years. Doug McKiernan hast recently took over from Marcin Budkowski and he took over from John Iley. The problem with this is that you don't get fresh ideas anymore. In-house promothing is good but you also need to look outside you company to strenghten your outfit. With in-house promotion you get a continuation instead of innovation. McLaren current form is a result of poor management in my eyes, the resources are their but not the right people to take advantage of it.

Martin Whitmarsh gave to much power away by delegating a lot of his responsibilities as a team principal, he is nice bloke put but was incapable of running McLaren.

[Richard]

I saw Ron Dennis interviewed by David Coulthard on the grid. The comment was along the lines that the recent updates are delivering the changes they predicted, so now they know their direction its just a question of persistence and the improvement will come, it takes more than a couple of races to turn these things around.

Of course that was stated with the usual don't mess with me" Dennis style. He's convincing and portrays that he means business, but we'll have to see if he was defending his corner or if something really will change soon.

[CjC]

I completely agree with everyone's posts regarding the issues at McLaren.

A B spec car is out of the question, homologated chassis for the season right?

I personally think Mclaren's issues are the personnel they have, Whitmarsh was a very likeable man, but its clear to see he didn't show enough direction, the only direction was downward. For me the current designers aren't up to it, I'm sure they are brilliant men, but they are up against other brilliant engineers and its the finest of margins that make the difference, to me McLaren have been recruiting from the mid-field these past few seasons and low and behold where have we, McLaren found themselves? Its only recently they've started to recruit from top teams but these personnel have only just started so we haven't been able to see any of their good work come through yet and the other recent additions to the payroll staff have started yet.

I have a question about Sam Michael, as far as I'm aware he doesn't have a technical input on the design side does he?
When he was hired, at first I thought it was a great addition, but at the time I think a member on this very forum said it was a bad move for Mclaren, basically they said that Sam isn't up too scratch and McLaren will decline with him on board. The member wasn't wrong but you have to wonder if Sam has played his part on the downfall of the performance or its just coincidence? Williams has risen since he's left them though?

McLaren do need to keep working hard on the chassis this season as its already been said the regulations are pretty stable for the time being so its crossover-able to next season.

I'm wondering if the driver line up should be called into question, a top team cant afford to run a rookie anymore (you have to ask yourself are McLaren a top team though?), the current rule/ tyre regulations are too complicated with out 1000s of miles of testing under rookies belts, I think Lewis Hamiltion is/was the last 'super- rookie', till the current testing restrictions are up lifted.

I think McLaren/ Honda need to pay top money to attracted a very, very good driver to the team- Vettel. Give him number 1 status and top money for a few seasons and hopefully he can drag good personnel with him form Red Bull. I doubt Vettel would sign up though, I have a feeling that my idea I have of him coming to McLaren is exactly the same idea he's probably contemplating with Adrian Newey about a Ferrari switch.

[KingHamilton01]

I completely agree with everyone's posts regarding the issues at McLaren.

A B spec car is out of the question, homologated chassis for the season right?

I personally think Mclaren's issues are the personnel they have, Whitmarsh was a very likeable man, but its clear to see he didn't show enough direction, the only direction was downward. For me the current designers aren't up to it, I'm sure they are brilliant men, but they are up against other brilliant engineers and its the finest of margins that make the difference, to me McLaren have been recruiting from the mid-field these past few seasons and low and behold where have we, McLaren found themselves? Its only recently they've started to recruit from top teams but these personnel have only just started so we haven't been able to see any of their good work come through yet and the other recent additions to the payroll staff have started yet.

I have a question about Sam Michael, as far as I'm aware he doesn't have a technical input on the design side does he?
When he was hired, at first I thought it was a great addition, but at the time I think a member on this very forum said it was a bad move for Mclaren, basically they said that Sam isn't up too scratch and McLaren will decline with him on board. The member wasn't wrong but you have to wonder if Sam has played his part on the downfall of the performance or its just coincidence? Williams has risen since he's left them though?

McLaren do need to keep working hard on the chassis this season as its already been said the regulations are pretty stable for the time being so its crossover-able to next season.

I'm wondering if the driver line up should be called into question, a top team cant afford to run a rookie anymore (you have to ask yourself are McLaren a top team though?), the current rule/ tyre regulations are too complicated with out 1000s of miles of testing under rookies belts, I think Lewis Hamiltion is/was the last 'super- rookie', till the current testing restrictions are up lifted.

I think McLaren/ Honda need to pay top money to attracted a very, very good driver to the team- Vettel. Give him number 1 status and top money for a few seasons and hopefully he can drag good personnel with him form Red Bull. I doubt Vettel would sign up though, I have a feeling that my idea I have of him coming to McLaren is exactly the same idea he's probably contemplating with Adrian Newey about a Ferrari switch.

Ultimately it is Design wise where McLaren are falling short, hence why there are trying to address this by bring in new personnel with promodru(red bull) being the major piece in the Jigsaw, I know there is another designer from Lotus but not sure what he is going to be responsible for within the design process? it's clear now many people are starting to realise that McLaren is not a quick fix and I have seen a lot of people mention that McLaren need A top experienced driver. Well I have to admit that I don't think they can attract the right driver? I mean if Alonso was to sign for mercedes that I have seen rumoured recently, would Rosberg be open to A McLaren move? im not sure but I think McLaren have to be ready to pounce driver wise.

For me it will be interesting to see the 2 day test goes and how many new part's are brought to the car, because McLaren keep on suggesting that they can develop quicker than any other team, well judging from the last race this has been proven wrong by Williams, Ferrari and Force India. Perhap's the area's of the car McLaren want's develop are more complexed and re-designing the sidepods is something they want to take there time getting right? then the other interesting thing is the suspension, I found it interesting in the race when Martin Brudle commented on the car saying that McLaren should be a lot faster in a straight line with Merc power and that it must have a lot of drag! so maybe time to test the car again without this and any updates.

[munudeges]

This team is lost in practically almost every area, and it's the team philosophy that's the problem which won't be remedied by a few personnel changes.

Where on Earth would this car be without a Mercedes engine?

[acosmichippo]

A team with such resources as McLaren should be able to have developed the car more by now. Are they perhaps working on a major update of the car?? A spec B car almost??

Come on, you know it's not that simple. Just look at Ferrari, they've been struggling for years, have even more resources than mclaren, and roughly equal drivers over the years (way better ones now). things can fall apart easily, but take time to improve.

[Thunder]

So RD and EB both state the Team is being restuctured. Plus Dan Fallows was expected to take the Place of Budkowski at the beginning of the Season, which we all know how that ended. That surely got the Aero department into Problems.

Getting things like that right just takes Time. It's frustrating but better now than next Season where they need full focus on Honda.

I just hope it pays out in the End and RD knows what he is doing.