2017 Mclaren F1 Team - Honda

[diffuser]

How many Techmans does it take to screw in a light bulb ?

I don't know but it takes just 1 to drive a whole forum crazy!

[godlameroso]

Where is ZakB?

[McHonda]

Alonso's onboard looked good. Could be a bit if a blessing being 11th instead of 10th with the tyre situation.

Some opening lap magic from both, a bit of luck and hopefully we can have a double points finish to close the season and the partnership.

[adrianjordan]

How many Techmans does it take to screw in a light bulb ?

I don't know but it takes just 1 to drive a whole forum crazy!

He keeps trying to screw it in, but the excessive drag of the McLaren chassis means that his efforts are all in vein.

[etusch]

Where is ZakB?

He is doing sponsorship interviews for very competitive 2018 season

[HPD]

Where is ZakB?

He is doing sponsorship interviews for very competitive 2018 season

The bad thing about Zak is that he is creating an advertising team and not a racing team.
At Honda they were saying the same thing. Mclaren no longer looks like a racing team

[Avocado]

At Honda they were saying

Stopped reading right here.

[Andres125sx]

Where is ZakB?

He is doing sponsorship interviews for very competitive 2018 season

The bad thing about Zak is that he is creating an advertising team and not a racing team.

Isn´t that the job of the Racing Director (Eric Boulier) instead of the Executive Director (Zak Brown)?

I´d say advertising is exactly one of the main tasks for Brown, getting attention, sponsors and money

At Honda they were saying the same thing. Mclaren no longer looks like a racing team.

Any specific reason? With Alonso at the wheel and Prodomou into the headquarter the only reason to say this is the poor results. With a PU reliability wich required around 3x the allowed allocations because of the constant failures, and a perfomance wich could barely fight with past season units of their rivals, I´d say the weak link is pretty obvious in this team, but I don´t think you were blaming Honda, weren´t you?

[HPD]

Any specific reason? With Alonso at the wheel and Prodomou into the headquarter the only reason to say this is the poor results. With a PU reliability wich required around 3x the allowed allocations because of the constant failures, and a perfomance wich could barely fight with past season units of their rivals, I´d say the weak link is pretty obvious in this team, but I don´t think you were blaming Honda, weren´t you?

Yes. Honda is the weakest link in the team.
But I do not share the opinion that Honda is responsible for 100% of the deficit
I think this is the right thing:
Honda 60%
Mclaren 40%

[McHonda]

Where is ZakB?

He is doing sponsorship interviews for very competitive 2018 season

The bad thing about Zak is that he is creating an advertising team and not a racing team.
At Honda they were saying the same thing. Mclaren no longer looks like a racing team

He doesn't have to create a racing team,he has one. What he wants is competitiveness as that is what will attract sponsors rather than lose them as they have been.

[zeph]

The other day I listened to the Motorsport Magazine podcast, they interviewed Christian Horner. He confirmed they were really close to signing Alonso for 2008 and 2009. If that had happened, I think Alonso could have been WDC in 2009.

Oh well, I think he's already made peace with the fact that he won't win another F1 title.

[NL_Fer]

I’m not saying MCL chassis is not good, i believe it is right there with the top 3, but it looks like they are running a relative high drag, high downforce setup. It makes there cornering look better and topspeed worse. Maybe it is the cars sweet spot and it needs a powerfull engine to work.

Looking at Redbull, they are hitting decent topspeeds at every track now. The seem to extract as much downforce possible, but always keep low drag, unlike the 2010-2013 Redbull, which was like current McLaren, fast cornering, low topspeed.

[stevesingo]

Using the figures Brundle spoke of, i.e Merc-2%=Ferrari-6%=Renault-11%=Honda, and assuming in qualifying Merc have 1000hp, this gives the following;

Ferrari=980hp
Renault=943hp
Honda=901hp

We also have the top speeds of all chassis for Abu Dhabi

ForceIndia=331.8
Williams=329.4
Merc=326.9
Ferrari=325.6
HAAS=324.2
RBR=322.7
Sauber=321.2 (we can discount these as Brundle made no mention of the 2016 Ferrari number)
Renault=320.1
TorroRosso=318.3
McLaren=316.3

Running it all through my spreadsheet I get the following.

Drag delta % of Merc powered cars

FI=0%
Williams= +2.3%
Merc= +4.8%

Drag delta % of Ferrari 2017 powered cars

Ferrari= 0%
HASS= +1.36%

Drag delta % of Renault powered cars

RBR= 0%
Renault= +2.57%
TR= +4.41%

As this is the McLaren thread, I will get back on topic, drag levels of all above compared to the McLaren;

ForceIndia= -3.17%
RBR= -1.06%
Williams= -0.84%
Merc= -0.49%
McLaren= 0%
Ferrari= +0.49%
Renault= +1.44%
HAAS= +1.85%
TorroRosso= +3.17%

Now, I see that TR are looking bad. That may be because they are conserving PU components, but the same could be said of all except Hamilton.

Anyway, using the McLaren Drag figure and the Renault power level we get an extra 5.3kph on top speed, up to 321.6kph. With Merc power it would be 328.5kph!

Would I put my life on the figures above? Nope! But, it is interesting to compare.

[Restomaniac]

Using the figures Brundle spoke of, i.e Merc-2%=Ferrari-6%=Renault-11%=Honda, and assuming in qualifying Merc have 1000hp, this gives the following;

Ferrari=980hp
Renault=943hp
Honda=901hp

We also have the top speeds of all chassis for Abu Dhabi

ForceIndia=331.8
Williams=329.4
Merc=326.9
Ferrari=325.6
HAAS=324.2
RBR=322.7
Sauber=321.2 (we can discount these as Brundle made no mention of the 2016 Ferrari number)
Renault=320.1
TorroRosso=318.3
McLaren=316.3

Running it all through my spreadsheet I get the following.

Drag delta % of Merc powered cars

FI=0%
Williams= +2.3%
Merc= +4.8%

Drag delta % of Ferrari 2017 powered cars

Ferrari= 0%
HASS= +1.36%

Drag delta % of Renault powered cars

RBR= 0%
Renault= +2.57%
TR= +4.41%

As this is the McLaren thread, I will get back on topic, drag levels of all above compared to the McLaren;

ForceIndia= -3.17%
RBR= -1.06%
Williams= -0.84%
Merc= -0.49%
McLaren= 0%
Ferrari= +0.49%
Renault= +1.44%
HAAS= +1.85%
TorroRosso= +3.17%

Now, I see that TR are looking bad. That may be because they are conserving PU components, but the same could be said of all except Hamilton.

Anyway, using the McLaren Drag figure and the Renault power level we get an extra 5.3kph on top speed, up to 321.6kph. With Merc power it would be 328.5kph!

Would I put my life on the figures above? Nope! But, it is interesting to compare.

That would put McLaren and RBR within 1.1Kph of each other. Then add in the Alonso factor.

Please, please, pretty please. Give us Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Alonso dukeing it out in 2018.

[Xero]

Interestingly, he repeated his comment during qualifying, but this time specifically said that the Reno 6% and Honda 11% deficits are purely on the ICE alone, and then you have ERS differences on top of that. We know all about Honda's MGU-K issues, but that gap on the ICE surprises me! He mentioned if after saying how surprised he was by how much intricate details the teams can work out on each other, so he's clearly been talking to someone. It's probably as close as we'll ever get to knowing, but still, take it with a pinch of salt.