2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[Squid]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

[makecry]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

Wasn't star sports india a relatively new deal?

[Squid]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

Wasn't star sports india a relatively new deal?

Yup, announced at the end of March. Could it be possible that the deal had to be called off if it was signed as McLaren-Honda now that their partnership is off?

[makecry]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

Wasn't star sports india a relatively new deal?

Yup, announced at the end of March. Could it be possible that the deal had to be called off if it was signed as McLaren-Honda now that their partnership is off?

I have a feeling Castrol's case might be something like that. They signed with McLaren-Honda. Now that there is no McLaren Honda, there is no more Castrol. Makes life harder for Zak Brown TBH.

[lio007]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

And what about KPMG, i thought I've seen that logo in recent years...

[Jolle]

McLaren has updated their partner list. That is one much smaller list of corporate partners... Gone are Johnnie Walker, Santander, CNN, Star Sports India, Michael Kors and GREAT Britain.

But of greatest interest, Castrol is no longer listed as an official supplier. Could the Petrobras rumors be true after all?

And what about KPMG, i thought I've seen that logo in recent years...

And strangely no mention of Renault... disite all the kind “we’re important partners” press talks, looks like they are not.

[techman]

They cahange PU and magicaly move up 4 spots and that exposes McLaren incompetent enginers. LMAO.

didnt mclaren say they have top 3 chassis , and it only due to honda that they cant show performance. so yes i hope they can show us a top 3 performance in 2018 and finish ahead of redbull, if not its a disappointment from their engineers. let see

[marmer]

They cahange PU and magicaly move up 4 spots and that exposes McLaren incompetent enginers. LMAO.

didnt mclaren say they have top 3 chassis , and it only due to honda that they cant show performance. so yes i hope they can show us a top 3 performance in 2018 and finish ahead of redbull, if not its a disappointment from their engineers. let see

They can say what they like when it's impossible to prove. They were the only team with a Honda engine.

New engine might reduce chassis and aero performance.

It will be interesting to see at the first attempt with the Renault how they do.
I suspect the claim that the 3rd best was wrong in the first place. That implies they are better than Mercedes Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red bull are the only team from those that will be running the same engine. I doubt that they will remain the same chassis performance when switching to Renault so might actually be worse in comparison to red bull. But have the potential to catch up

The real test for them is can they beat Renault they are playing catch up on chassis and aero development but made big progress last year and don't have to adopt a new engine.


If McLaren don't beat Renault next season could be very boring for them. Easily faster than Williams (unless they actually develop the car) sauber and Toro Rosso while only potential to catch force India.

There is a very real possibility that they will finish 6th in the constructors championship. Or worse if Haas or Williams make decent cars or if honda pull a blinder and Toro rosso out do them.

[diffuser]

They cahange PU and magicaly move up 4 spots and that exposes McLaren incompetent enginers. LMAO.

didnt mclaren say they have top 3 chassis , and it only due to honda that they cant show performance. so yes i hope they can show us a top 3 performance in 2018 and finish ahead of redbull, if not its a disappointment from their engineers. let see

Even if McLaren's Chassis was better than RBR they'd be underdogs to finish ahead....Stoffel isn't at Max or Ricardo's level yet. He'd have to have a major jump in his driving for McLaren to finish ahead of RBR.

Also having a top 3 chassis doesn't mean you finish 3ird. There are many other things to consider. You could argue that Merc had , at best, the 3ird best chassis but yet they won it all.

Anyways, not sure why I bother, you're just gonna believe whatever you want to believe and ignore what you see. The statement from above, that you made, is a clear indication of that.

[Restomaniac]

They cahange PU and magicaly move up 4 spots and that exposes McLaren incompetent enginers. LMAO.

didnt mclaren say they have top 3 chassis , and it only due to honda that they cant show performance. so yes i hope they can show us a top 3 performance in 2018 and finish ahead of redbull, if not its a disappointment from their engineers. let see

Even if McLaren's Chassis was better than RBR they'd be underdogs to finish ahead....Stoffel isn't at Max or Ricardo's level yet. He'd have to have a major jump in his driving for McLaren to finish ahead of RBR.

Also having a top 3 chassis doesn't mean you finish 3ird. There are many other things to consider. You could argue that Merc had , at best, the 3ird best chassis but yet they won it all.

Anyways, not sure why I bother, you're just gonna believe whatever you want to believe and ignore what you see. The statement from above, that you made, is a clear indication of that.

Indeed. Until you add context the statement '3rd best chassis' means nothing.

I'm not saying that it's true BTW.

It's like saying Lewis Hamilton was the best driver in 2016 because he had the most wins. That works right up until you add the context that Nico Rosberg ended up with 5 more points and the title at the end of the season. The if, whats and maybes are well established I'm just talking about context.

[McHonda]

Unless we're re-running 2017 the 3rd best chassis talk is irrelevant anyway for 2018. Maybe it would've been with equal power, maybe it wouldn't have.

Who cares anymore, we've got a new engine and a big ugly Halo to incorporate so the MCL-33 vs the other big teams improved 2018 cars has no relevance to the 32's performance against their 2017 cars no matter how desperate some people are for it to be otherwise.

[Manoah2u]

I'm really baffled at how people take it from thin air that Mclaren could reach P4 in the WCC just by an engine transplant.

Force India with a relatively tiny budget snatched P4. They were above all consistant and had a great driver pairing, given.
yet all the money in the world that Williams carries, Renault carries, and Toro Rosso carries, diddn't get them past Force India,
with a gigantic lead over the rest one might say. And that includes 2 teams that had the Renault engines.

It's a stretch to think Mclaren instantly can beat or reach RedBull only because of the same engine, and them saying they have the best chassis.
Funny enough, RedBull also claims they had the best chassis, but if they had an engine like Mercedes/Ferrari, they'd be miles and miles away in the distance.

And here comes Mclaren from years and years of abysmal results, incredible stress that only recently with Brown has been 'relieved' somewhat, years of missing
the mark completely with the chassis, and we are to expect them to just jump in and beat RedBull?

As much as i'd like to see Mclaren back at the front, that rather sounds like still believing Santa exists.

Do people forget Adrian Newey is essentially still the one that makes the magic happen at RedBull? RB missed the mark at the start a bit - also hampered by engine problems -
and Newey involved himself more and in no-time they were back at the top. It's already announced he's far more involved with 2018's competitor than last years, which only
tells you to expect even more from RedBull.

Mclaren at best would find themselves right behind Force India for 2018. And that is if their engines aren't handgrenades like the both the renaults and the honda engines
of 2017.

Matter of fact, Alonso parked a perfectly good working Mclaren - supposedly more than once - with no engine problems because he didnt feel like finishing p16 or something like that.
"No speed" No speed!". I do wonder how many times the Renault engine will desintegrate in 2018 with the even more restricted engine usage, and Renault's work to get more power
from it.

And as mentioned above, who's to say the Alonso-VanDoorne combo is that good?
Is Alonso still 'that good' or is VanDoorne actually rather bad by being far behind him for the larger part of the season?
vanDoorne is relatively still quite the rookie. If any, you'd have to compare him to Bottas in his 2nd year, and quite frankly, that was very underwhelming. As for Alonso, how good still is he? how motivated is he still?
I like to think of him as great, and he has had some great battles during the year.
He could be still the very best and mature one out there - but at the same time, even that is a variable we haven't had any decent comparison for in the last couple of years.
I have a high regards for Button, but don't see Jenson as Hamilton/Senna material. Yet Button stood his ground against Alonso. and after Ferrari, Alonso's only reasonable comparison material has been Button.
After all, VanDoorne is 'just' a rookie,

whereas Ricciardo and Verstappen aswell as Ocon and Perez are all fully on fire and focus.

[McHonda]

It's not just McLaren that has praised their last two chassis's though so it's not coming from nowhere. AMuS has reported several times how well the car does with it's tyres and how the chassis matches up using GPS traces and rival engineers told James Allen that at the end of 2016 they felt McLaren had the 3rd best(Only because Ferrari stopped developing to be fair). Then you've got the known shortfalls of the engine but in spite of that McLaren kept finishing 7th on the traditional chassis tracks. The cars have been largely praised since Spain 2015 when Button described it as "scary" and only twice since then have the drivers had a go at it, Suzuka 2016 and Button in Brazil 2016.

Prod was a large part of RB's success too and under him there really has been a visible improvement since Spain 2015 but obviously because of the engine situation it's been largely hidden. They've shown they can beat Force India while losing 'X' amount from the engine side on tracks that allow it and RB have managed to clear Force India by a fair margin so I don't think it's that much of a stretch to believe McLaren can fit somewhere in between. Maybe not everywhere, Baku will still sting for example unless Renault have a great winter but I think on the majority of tracks Force India will be beatable. They're also said to be struggling with the added weight of the Halo for this year while McLaren aren't so that also goes in McLaren's favour.

Still no evidence Alonso parked it, every single stoppage was confirmed by Honda as a legit problem with the exception of Spa 2017 where they said there was nothing obvious in the data but which a week later in Monza they admitted they had to make a change when they next fired up that engine in FP so it sounds like Alonso felt something the data either hid or didn't pick up on or it's an almighty coincidence to be fair.

Alonso did no worse against Button than Hamilton did, they had similar margins of victory even so that's not too bad. I haven't seen anything to think he's on the decline, usually you start to get errors creeping in but he was literally the only error free driver last season, no crashes that were his doing, no spins etc..so I think he's still operating at a very high level but time waits for no man so maybe we'll see something this year.

[RonDennis]

I'm really baffled at how people take it from thin air that Mclaren could reach P4 in the WCC just by an engine transplant.

Force India with a relatively tiny budget snatched P4. They were above all consistant and had a great driver pairing, given.
yet all the money in the world that Williams carries, Renault carries, and Toro Rosso carries, diddn't get them past Force India,
with a gigantic lead over the rest one might say. And that includes 2 teams that had the Renault engines.

It's a stretch to think Mclaren instantly can beat or reach RedBull only because of the same engine, and them saying they have the best chassis.
Funny enough, RedBull also claims they had the best chassis, but if they had an engine like Mercedes/Ferrari, they'd be miles and miles away in the distance.

And here comes Mclaren from years and years of abysmal results, incredible stress that only recently with Brown has been 'relieved' somewhat, years of missing
the mark completely with the chassis, and we are to expect them to just jump in and beat RedBull?

As much as i'd like to see Mclaren back at the front, that rather sounds like still believing Santa exists.

Do people forget Adrian Newey is essentially still the one that makes the magic happen at RedBull? RB missed the mark at the start a bit - also hampered by engine problems -
and Newey involved himself more and in no-time they were back at the top. It's already announced he's far more involved with 2018's competitor than last years, which only
tells you to expect even more from RedBull.

Mclaren at best would find themselves right behind Force India for 2018. And that is if their engines aren't handgrenades like the both the renaults and the honda engines
of 2017.

Matter of fact, Alonso parked a perfectly good working Mclaren - supposedly more than once - with no engine problems because he didnt feel like finishing p16 or something like that.
"No speed" No speed!". I do wonder how many times the Renault engine will desintegrate in 2018 with the even more restricted engine usage, and Renault's work to get more power
from it.

And as mentioned above, who's to say the Alonso-VanDoorne combo is that good?
Is Alonso still 'that good' or is VanDoorne actually rather bad by being far behind him for the larger part of the season?
vanDoorne is relatively still quite the rookie. If any, you'd have to compare him to Bottas in his 2nd year, and quite frankly, that was very underwhelming. As for Alonso, how good still is he? how motivated is he still?
I like to think of him as great, and he has had some great battles during the year.
He could be still the very best and mature one out there - but at the same time, even that is a variable we haven't had any decent comparison for in the last couple of years.
I have a high regards for Button, but don't see Jenson as Hamilton/Senna material. Yet Button stood his ground against Alonso. and after Ferrari, Alonso's only reasonable comparison material has been Button.
After all, VanDoorne is 'just' a rookie,

whereas Ricciardo and Verstappen aswell as Ocon and Perez are all fully on fire and focus.

Yeah, McLaren sucks, Alonso sucks, Red Bull would be seconds ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari, Force India unbeatable in 4th, all the money that Williams and Toro Rosso carries, you really have no idea what you're actually talking about do you? I'm not expecting them to beat Red Bull from the start, but it ain't impossible, they have done it before. You guys really need to stop acting like Red Bull are some kinds of gods, they're not, Mercedes are. Let's see how RB will handle these new suspension rules.

[dren]

The biggest challenge Alonso ever had was Hamilton in his rookie season. They finished equal on points at the end of the year. Hamilton is better now. Is Alonso? A lot of your questions with the car will be answered once we can compare them to Red Bull. Based on some information here, the Honda (at the end of 2017) really isn't that far off of the Renault, and might be on par with it this year. Mclaren can feel comfortable in knowing that a repeat of 2017 is unlikely with Renault's reliability and performance record vs Honda's, but I don't see them magically becoming a podium machine. I think they'll be around where they were at the end of last year.