Mclaren Honda 2015

[Richard]

Seriously have some people forgotten that Mclaren have done more laps in this test than Red Bull last year? They were the only team to win races other than Merc last year.

And you forget that RBR was not the only team with the Renault PU last year. McLaren did only 350km with Honda PU but Renault (RBR, STR and Caterham) did almost 700. Not a same situation I guess.

So Renault with 3 times as many cars only achieved double the distance. So Honda have done well on that metric. Also we haven't heard of saws attacking bodywork like RB last year. Yes Honda are handicapped by only having one team, but this test was expected based on the experience of last year.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

If you have an Autosport Plus subscription....
Is it a drama or a crisis at McLaren?

One McLaren team member famously said at the launch of one such bold car: "Our long-term strategy is to re-establish the team as a consistent winner, through increasing overall competitiveness and reliability. To achieve this demands significant, rather than incremental, steps."

Does that sound familiar? Indeed, it's a quote that would fit quite well today for what is going on with the MP4-30. But it actually came ahead of the launch of McLaren's ultimately doomed MP4-18 back in 2003. That car never raced.

[Chuckjr]

I simply can't believe there are people here using one preseason test as a barometer for the competitiveness of a team...dooming Macca because they completed fewer laps than maybe hoped? Really? I could understand such short sightedness over at planet F1, but at F1 Technical? Just wow.

[ollandos]

aerodesing is good ....with very good results in jerez ....
i think mclaren can win races this year ...maybe not from the start of season

[Richard]

I simply can't believe there are people here using one preseason test as a barometer for the competitiveness of a team...dooming Macca because they completed fewer laps than maybe hoped? Really? I could understand such short sightedness over at planet F1, but at F1 Technical? Just wow.

I've made sure it'll be a little quieter for a while

[zeph]

Excellently detailed article by Mark Hughes about the MP29's design choices and why they didn't work:

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/le ... r-mclaren/

In the "Comments" section of that article, one reader asks the author:

Hi mark,
One year ago, Williams announced Petrobras would their fuel supplier in 2015, am I right?

Mark Hughes answers:

Hi Park.

Re: One year ago, Williams announced Petrobras would their fuel supplier in 2015, am I right?

That was indeed the stated plan. But that isn’t what’s happening. They remain on Petronas. Getting the fuel matched to the engine is a massive part of being competitive under these regs. McLaren showed that by using Mobil and initially being around 40bhp down to Merc (there’s around 0.4s of lap time right there) using an identical engine. Mobil had clawed a lot – but not all – of that back by the end of the year.

Regards

Mark

I had no idea that fuel could be such a competitive (dis)advantage. This would indeed explain why McLaren was so uncompetitive despite having the same PU as the champions.

[Andres125sx]

I disagree.

We can certainly say the package is a disaster, I think that is pretty clear.

Take a look Ron, this is what some people say about our very first test....
http://estaticos.marca.com/imagenes/201 ... on_7_2.jpg

very first ? are you sure about that ?

Yes, obviously.

The test you probably are thinking about was with the MP4-29, not 2015 car, and I´d bet that PU also was an earlier development version, so with 2015 car yes, it was the very first

[adrianjordan]

too bad that pix was taken before testing showed how far they are from a normal functioning vehicle.

Of course they all think of RB last year. Well, nothing wrong with hoping of course.

But guys, no dreaming please, things are looking bad for McL, really bad. I had better expectations than that it is for sure.

And for sure Vettel and Kimi and the Ferrari team, those dudes yes of course, they are laughing out loud ...

And that is round 1.

Keeping fingers crossed for round 2, but McL needs to catch up

Round 1??

Did I sleep through the Melbourne Grand Prix?

[Thunder]

Soooo should we get excited for that?
https://twitter.com/HondaJP/status/564711065569619968

[Henne]

Soooo should we get excited for that?

https://twitter.com/HondaJP/status/564711065569619968

Considering the previous ones where everyone was getting over excited... No you shouldn't.

We can just wait and see what they have to tell us. It might be a livery change, it might be some extra info due to the testing issues... It might be to tell us how's the weather like outside the Honda garage...

[Holm86]

Soooo should we get excited for that?

https://twitter.com/HondaJP/status/564711065569619968

So it's in Japan, perhaps a big japanese sponsor??
Or Honda just want's to hold it at their own HQ
But you don't have a press conference now, if you don't have something special to say??

[KeiKo403]

Maybe a new title sponser in Sony and car will be renamed the PS4-30

[Phil]

Seriously have some people forgotten that Mclaren have done more laps in this test than Red Bull last year? They were the only team to win races other than Merc last year.

And you forget that RBR was not the only team with the Renault PU last year. McLaren did only 350km with Honda PU but Renault (RBR, STR and Caterham) did almost 700. Not a same situation I guess.

So Renault with 3 times as many cars only achieved double the distance. So Honda have done well on that metric.

Too bad they are not racing against other teams with no previous experience, like all of them did last year. They are the only ones, so any comparison to how teams faired last year is IMO rather irrelevant. They've had a year to watch how others faired and to a degree learn from mistakes, show up prepared and ready, so by all means, they are supposed to do better and the expectations are higher and rightly so. And as for Redbull being the only team to win races; they certainly didn't win it for their engine performance and if Mercedes hadn't had troubles in those 3 races, they wouldn't have been close. Got to be impressed by how RedBull faired though - despite the PU problems they had, they certainly showed what a beast the Redbull was on the chassis front and aerodynamically. Will McLaren be that strong if their PU fails to be as good as the Mercedes, or even RedBull and Ferrari? There's nothing in the history of the past 2 years to suggest that sadly.

IMO - for McLaren to do well also hinges on how strong the chassis is they produce AND how strong the Honda engine is. Not trying to be too pessismistic here, but IMO the first test was a rather weak showing with very limited running. The pressure will be on to have a working car next test and catch up to gather lots of data. If not, 2015 will be the year some have feared; a difficult one, that perhaps will be more looked as a test run for 2016. I hope not; It would be great to have them at the front, at least at level with one of the Mercedes engined teams, Ferrari, or even RedBull.

[taperoo2k]

I don't think we should be expecting too much from McLaren Honda in 2015, it's going to be a development year. Of course I'd be more than happy if they are up there at the front not too far behind Mercedes. Also just because McLaren saw how other teams got on last year is not really relevant given the Honda Power Unit is a complex piece of kit that will take time to get working properly let alone fast (as happened to Renault last year). We'll know how well or badly the tests went after the first race. That's the first real litmus test.

[Thunder]

This was posted over at Autosport.

Apparently this Photo was shot in Tokyo:


Not much so far except there should be an F1 Car underneath that blanket. ^^