2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[Squid]

I believe Manoah2u is just being honest. he'd like them to do as well as possible, the likely hood of that is another question.

If I were McLaren, 4th would be a realistic goal. That is to say, 4th or anything better I would be extremely happy with, 5th happy and anything lower would be a disappointment.

Yeah, the likelyhood of McLaren beating or even matching Red Bull this season is very, very slim, and there's a good degree of mismanaged expectations here. Yours is probably the healthiest I've seen. McLaren is realistically going to be fighting Force India and Renault for 4th. I don't believe Renault will win that fight, but between FI and McLaren, it's gonna be close.

Also, there are a lot of people here that seem to be think that everyone who 1) is a Honda fan and 2) criticizes McLaren is just a hater. There's no need to be so jaded, most of us really do want McLaren to do well as well. Hell, even Alonso who slammed Honda so much last year, I like him and I think he deserves to be fighting at the front.

But if there's one thing that we learned as Honda fans, is to manage expectations.

[RonDennis]

I believe Manoah2u is just being honest. he'd like them to do as well as possible, the likely hood of that is another question.

If I were McLaren, 4th would be a realistic goal. That is to say, 4th or anything better I would be extremely happy with, 5th happy and anything lower would be a disappointment.

Yeah, the likelyhood of McLaren beating or even matching Red Bull this season is very, very slim, and there's a good degree of mismanaged expectations here. Yours is probably the healthiest I've seen. McLaren is realistically going to be fighting Force India and Renault for 4th. I don't believe Renault will win that fight, but between FI and McLaren, it's gonna be close.

Also, there are a lot of people here that seem to be think that everyone who 1) is a Honda fan and 2) criticizes McLaren is just a hater. There's no need to be so jaded, most of us really do want McLaren to do well as well. Hell, even Alonso who slammed Honda so much last year, I like him and I think he deserves to be fighting at the front.

But if there's one thing that we learned as Honda fans, is to manage expectations.

If McLaren needs to compete with Force India they should just quit F1 after the season, the same goes for Renault.

[diffuser]

It's all about the pace they have next year, because I don't care if they end up 3rd, 4th of 5th. They could end 3rd, but if they are more than a second of the pace, would you call it a success? I wouldn't. Renault also said it, position is less important than closing the gap.

Agreed , Alo needs to be between the RBRs often.

[Chicane]

Mclaren's minimum expectation is 4th. Heck even Prost concedes they cannot beat Mclaren in 2018 His quote from F1i

"The factory team will race against two well-established teams," Prost told Auto Motor und Sport this week. "And both of those teams also have top drivers," the four-time world champion added. "Maybe even the best. On paper we cannot beat Red Bull and McLaren."

Mclaren have said they still have ballast to play with while Force India by their own admission are struggling with weight and so are Renault where Hulkenberg clearly has been asked to loose weight. The large shark fin have been banned for next year and Mclaren have been developing their concept without one while others have to adjust. Halo will have it's own implications not just in terms of weight and aero and the well funded teams have an advantage in optimizing the aero around Halo.

Renault powered red Bull clearly had good enough race pace to put the fright amongst the top teams even beating them on 3 occasions. Mclaren have top drivers. Mclaren have a fairly large budget, have a solid chassis as a baseline for 2018 and their minimum target will be to finish 4th overall. In a video on their twitter handle, they made it clear that their target for 2018 is podiums. Red Bull may be hard to be overall but i wouldn't be surprised if Mclaren beat them at least on occasion.

Force India are a very efficient team and they have punched above their weight but surpassing Mclaren and Renault is a near impossible challenge for 2018. Mclaren will be looking to be as as close to Red Bull as possible in terms of pace and challenge for podiums in 2018. That is their target. 5th will be a catastrophe.

[Webber2011]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

[Craigy]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

I think it's possible and I claim my $20.

[etusch]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

İf Mclaren can achieve to finish the season 50 point close I will take it as they are champion

[BosF1]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

I'm with you. I consider it highly unlikely that Macca will be that close to Red Bull at the end of the season.

This does not mean I'll be handing out money if I turn out te be wrong however

[mclaren111]

Sad state of affairs

Really hope Zak can produce a couple of "miracles" during the season.

[DFX]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

Well, I will bookmark this just in case

[dren]

That's a bit stretching saying sponsors aren't coming because of Renault.

The article is insinuating sponsors left because they didn't want to be attached to 'failure'. The failure was the Honda relationship over the last three years. It states that they'll need to find more sponsorship moving forward with Renault.

From the article:

The eight sponsors that have left the team, according to AutoBild, are: Santander, Michael Kors, Johnnie Walker, CNN, GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland, Star Sports, Castrol and Calsonic Kansei. Only one new sponsor has entered so far: Kimoa (Fernando Alonso's clothing brand).

[diffuser]

If McLaren are challenging Red Bull this coming season I will personally pay $20 to each of the next five fans who think that's possible.

Let's get this straight before everyone jumps in for some free cash
If McLaren are closer than 50 points to Red Bull at the 2018 season end I'll pay up

Honestly, the first five who reply to this comment are the one's I'll honour, and pay up if necessary.
Are you game enough to offer the same ? ? ?

I reckon they will be at least 150 points behind Red Bull

I presume you're talking about the constructors....it's too much of a cr@p shoot with Stoffel. He's still too much of an unknown quantity.

I think ALO will finish ahead of 1 of the RBR drivers in the drivers championship.


Anyways we're just guessing...we have no real idea how they're gonna do.

[techman]

That's a bit stretching. The article is insinuating sponsors left because they didn't want to be attached to 'failure'. The failure was the Honda relationship over the last three years. It states that they'll need to find more sponsorship moving forward with Renault.

the sponsors saw the engine change this year but still decided not to stay with mclaren renault because they had no failth in mclaren renault for 2018 so they left. cant blame them

[McHonda]

Now we're pretending to know why sponsors left? Pretty sure Santander had other reasons and because we don't know anything yet about the 2 unnamed sponsors Zak mentioned (who they are or what they are bringing or requesting) then we can't really speak for the others either. Example is if it is Petrobras coming then Castrol going isn't because they've lost faith obviously.

We simply don't know enough. If 1 bigger sponsor coming in moves out 2 smaller ones then good. If McLaren wanted them all to stay but they all left before the end of their deals somehow then bad. If these smaller deals simply ran their course and they've left then meh.

[Manoah2u]

That's a bit stretching. The article is insinuating sponsors left because they didn't want to be attached to 'failure'. The failure was the Honda relationship over the last three years. It states that they'll need to find more sponsorship moving forward with Renault.

the sponsors saw the engine change this year but still decided not to stay with mclaren renault because they had no failth in mclaren renault for 2018 so they left. cant blame them

That's stretching quite a lot again.

Let's see what is actually leaving

- Santander : Leaves Formula 1 alltogether totally irrelevant of any Mclaren state of affairs
- Castrol : Only present due to the HONDA link, which is gone, and supposedly gets replace with Petrobras.
- Johnnie Walker : Was announced to leave as early as 2015, then got (temporarily) retained, and if i'm correct is going to Force India (again, not news and thus has nothing to do with 2018 prospects)
- Star Sports Network has changed its mechanics about which sport to cater, so again, nothing to do with Mclaren or trust for 2018.
- Calsonic Kansei only was present due to the Honda link. Honda gone = Calsonic Kansei gone. NOTHING to do with 2018 Mclaren prospects
- GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland : Totally to do due to Brexit, nothing to do with Mclaren's F1 2018 capabilities.
- Michael Kors : Leaving because Fernando Alonso's own brand is coming aboard, nothing to do with 2018 Mclaren capabilities
- CNN : Leaves as a sponsor because F1 shifts from NBC to ESPN. Nothing to do with Mclaren 2018 prospects.

funny isn't it?

neither one of these sponsors is leaving because of how mclaren MIGHT do in 2018, but for a variety of other reasons, mainly due to the departure of Honda and earlier deals made with Ron Dennis, who is also gone from Mclaren.

You should expect a variety of new announcements for Mclaren to pop up somewhere in the coming weeks.