More details about McLaren's technical leadership changes are becoming public as it has now become clear that Toro Rosso's highly valued technical director, James Key, is set to join McLaren in the same role.
This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Some quotes from Zak's Q&A on the official team website:
I’m excited that James will be starting in time not to influence the 2019 car on its debut, but certainly to help its progression over the course of the season, and most importantly have him be the ‘father’ of the MCL35.
Finally, we’re making good progress on the sponsorship and partnership front. It’s safe to say, you’re going to see some great new brands on our car on the grid in Australia, so I’m very satisfied with the efforts the marketing and commercial departments are putting in to find us great partners to come on this journey back to winning races.
Some quotes from Zak's Q&A on the official team website:
I’m excited that James will be starting in time not to influence the 2019 car on its debut, but certainly to help its progression over the course of the season, and most importantly have him be the ‘father’ of the MCL35.
Finally, we’re making good progress on the sponsorship and partnership front. It’s safe to say, you’re going to see some great new brands on our car on the grid in Australia, so I’m very satisfied with the efforts the marketing and commercial departments are putting in to find us great partners to come on this journey back to winning races.
Some quotes from Zak's Q&A on the official team website:
I’m excited that James will be starting in time not to influence the 2019 car on its debut, but certainly to help its progression over the course of the season, and most importantly have him be the ‘father’ of the MCL35.
Finally, we’re making good progress on the sponsorship and partnership front. It’s safe to say, you’re going to see some great new brands on our car on the grid in Australia, so I’m very satisfied with the efforts the marketing and commercial departments are putting in to find us great partners to come on this journey back to winning races.
Would be great if they're able to secure a blue chip sponsorship, like Amazon....
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
"You don't quite know what the competition is going to do, there's a decent amount of new development with the aero [rules] which hopefully gives us a chance and a bit of a reset because we need to get it right this time. So we're just hoping to be much more competitive."
"I think everyone's excited to have two new drivers," said Brown. "There will be some excitement on the grid, how's our car, we've got two new drivers and some new partners on the car."
The only thing I would add to this is that they should never have joined that first year. They got locked in, the regulations made it impossible to correct fundamental flaws in their design. It wasted 2 more years. Ultimately led to the disastrous season of 2017, where they were finally allowed to completely revamped the PU from head to toe. They would have been better off running a mule at Suzuka the first 2 years.
It's been more than once that Honda denied the use of a mule.
In any case huge respect to Honda.
Now we need consistency with Renault engine and i hear that it will deliver.
I'm not sure Honda denied any mule testing. It was Mclaren who wanted exclusivity.
I think what he's trying to say is that once they were in F1, a Mule was against the rules. As long as they were on the outside they could have used a Mule till they were blue in the face.
Some quotes from Zak's Q&A on the official team website:
I’m excited that James will be starting in time not to influence the 2019 car on its debut, but certainly to help its progression over the course of the season, and most importantly have him be the ‘father’ of the MCL35.
Finally, we’re making good progress on the sponsorship and partnership front. It’s safe to say, you’re going to see some great new brands on our car on the grid in Australia, so I’m very satisfied with the efforts the marketing and commercial departments are putting in to find us great partners to come on this journey back to winning races.
Some quotes from Zak's Q&A on the official team website:
I’m excited that James will be starting in time not to influence the 2019 car on its debut, but certainly to help its progression over the course of the season, and most importantly have him be the ‘father’ of the MCL35.
Finally, we’re making good progress on the sponsorship and partnership front. It’s safe to say, you’re going to see some great new brands on our car on the grid in Australia, so I’m very satisfied with the efforts the marketing and commercial departments are putting in to find us great partners to come on this journey back to winning races.
It's been more than once that Honda denied the use of a mule.
In any case huge respect to Honda.
Now we need consistency with Renault engine and i hear that it will deliver.
I'm not sure Honda denied any mule testing. It was Mclaren who wanted exclusivity.
I think what he's trying to say is that once they were in F1, a Mule was against the rules. As long as they were on the outside they could have used a Mule till they were blue in the face.
A mule is just a small team used to test the engine, which is totally permitted.
I'm not sure Honda denied any mule testing. It was Mclaren who wanted exclusivity.
I think what he's trying to say is that once they were in F1, a Mule was against the rules. As long as they were on the outside they could have used a Mule till they were blue in the face.
A mule is just a small team used to test the engine, which is totally permitted.
Ahhhhh, for Me a Mule is a f1 Car you put your PU into and drive around a track. not permitted.
I think what he's trying to say is that once they were in F1, a Mule was against the rules. As long as they were on the outside they could have used a Mule till they were blue in the face.
A mule is just a small team used to test the engine, which is totally permitted.
Ahhhhh, for Me a Mule is a f1 Car you put your PU into and drive around a track. not permitted.
It's hard to decipher sarcasm from text... sometimes.
This is probably one of the reasons why McLaren wants their own Indycar team, because you could make a great package deal for the US and the global market.
