2016 McLaren F1 Team - Honda

[Gothrek]

I was really surprised by Vandoorne, on a first race outqualifying a former world champion without really been used to the car. Impressive!
Does anybody know if anybody has ever pulled this off? Somebody falling in for another driver and straight out-qualifying the establishment?

[Sayeman]

Vandoorne having a good race... Engine power seems to be ok... Too bad button had hybrid system failure.

[Gothrek]

If they don't give Vandoorne a seat next year, it would be a real pity, what a race is he driving.

[fenix4life]

it must be clear that he deserves a place next year, whatever the team
One issue, he hasn't got a lot of sponsors

[TheGkbrk]

First point. Great drive by Vandoorne. I am sure Button would be up there somewhere if he kept going.
Hoping the rise of this team will keep up the whole season.

[damager21]

Great drive by Vandoorne. Shame that Button had to retire from the race. I believe he would have finished ahead of Bottas had he not retired.

We are at least in the points after 2nd race so that's some positive. We seem to be ahead of Force India, Renault, Sauber and Manor. Haas is a surprise so far, two consecutive top 10 finish is truly impressive for a new team.

[Sayeman]

How much of that Haas car is built by Ferrari?
Ferrari seems to be suffering from reliability issues..not sure why they made so many changes to the last year's already great engine.

[Pierce89]

I'm quietly laughing at the people that claimed Mclaren would be racing with Manor and Sauber and wouldn't even be capable scoring points.

[damager21]

McLaren with those rear wings and setup is clearly masking Honda's speed deficit and that is eating up tires more quickly than they would like. There is a need to find at least 0.5 sec to fight Williams and Torro Rosso. I am not sure if the upgrades McLaren brought here really worked or not. I believe Spain is where we may see some real upgrades.

Also, Jenson's retirement due to ERS is not good news for Honda. We all thought the engine is at least reliable, doesn't look like. Will be interesting to see if they change MGU-H or MGU-K for next race.

[Thunder]

Great Drive by Vandoorne, showing he really deserves a McLaren Seat next Year. Reliability still not completely figured out sadly. I hope it's something easy to fix in the Future.

Like i said i'll wait until after Barcelona with my first Judgement of how this Season could turn out but scoring a Point on a Power Track makes the Future just a little bit brighter. This should give the Team new Motivation to push for Performance.

[Pierce89]

How much of that Haas car is built by Ferrari?
Ferrari seems to be suffering from reliability issues..not sure why they made so many changes to the last year's already great engine.

Ferrari made so many changes in an effort to leapfrog Merc in power, rightly so as reliability upgrades are token free. They are also seemingly much closer on pace than last year.

[Sayeman]

McLaren with those rear wings and setup is clearly masking Honda's speed deficit and that is eating up tires more quickly than they would like. There is a need to find at least 0.5 sec to fight Williams and Torro Rosso. I am not sure if the upgrades McLaren brought here really worked or not. I believe Spain is where we may see some real upgrades.

Also, Jenson's retirement due to ERS is not good news for Honda. We all thought the engine is at least reliable, doesn't look like. Will be interesting to see if they change MGU-H or MGU-K for next race.

How do you know that Mclaren is masking Honda's deficit?
Hope we don't start hearing the "We have the BEST chassis on the grid" excuse all over again.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Great Drive by Vandoorne, showing he really deserves a McLaren Seat next Year. Reliability still not completely figured out sadly. I hope it's something easy to fix in the Future.

Not sure I would go as far to say he deserves a McLaren seat, Button retired after all and he was already ahead of Vandoorne at that point. I think there's speed in the car, they just need a clean weekend to make the most out of it.

[Gothrek]

Great Drive by Vandoorne, showing he really deserves a McLaren Seat next Year. Reliability still not completely figured out sadly. I hope it's something easy to fix in the Future.

Not sure I would go as far to say he deserves a McLaren seat, Button retired after all and he was already ahead of Vandoorne at that point. I think there's speed in the car, they just need a clean weekend to make the most out of it.

1. He outqualified a former world champion on debut
2. He scored the first point for McLaren this season
3. Very good and mature overtakes

Remember he has never had a F1 raceweekend before and he is up to speed with Button.

[TheGkbrk]

McLaren with those rear wings and setup is clearly masking Honda's speed deficit and that is eating up tires more quickly than they would like. There is a need to find at least 0.5 sec to fight Williams and Torro Rosso. I am not sure if the upgrades McLaren brought here really worked or not. I believe Spain is where we may see some real upgrades.

Also, Jenson's retirement due to ERS is not good news for Honda. We all thought the engine is at least reliable, doesn't look like. Will be interesting to see if they change MGU-H or MGU-K for next race.

Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know eating tyres quicker would mean more downforce and more downforce would mean slower top speed. They would be going for less downforce if they wanted to mask a deficit of the powerunit.