McLaren and the Need to Improve

[Laitinen]

The Mercedes engine has been down on power and the real engine develpment is also down since the very tragic death of Ilmor founder Paul Morgan in a 2001 plane crash. The development ever since hasn't been very innovative & effective with the chassis and especially with the engine.

Take f.ex. the previous MP which was meant to be revolutionary but never had a one single race.
McLaren's poor reliability does not ease the possibilities for our very dear team to win championship. After the last season all the teams had equal opportunities to develop - some succeeded and some didn't. The best teams show their developmental capacity by their doings and results - not with vows and open promises of the change to come.

There are all the elements needed: very fast drivers, very modern facilities and test laboratories, and enough liquid to keep the heat on; it makes quite clear to ask, that why the impact isn't so effective?

In subsequent days I wish that the tide is turning. But to be realistic, there are no signs of that. Ecclestone declared today that this season is over with McLaren when it comes to winning the championships. Annoying to hear that, but there are some good reasons to count on that phrase.

[Gt_R]

It's just too easy to say Mclarens are goners.

Ron's character is too strong to let that happen.

I think that Mclaren had tried to ensure reliability by running their engines a little tuned down. Hence, the lack of power. But sadly, for Kimi, the reliability isnt working yet.

The only question that bugs me is why Mclaren facing all these problems when the new car is effectively an improved MP4/18. Surely, they don't expect to use 2 years to solve the fundamentals of a car.

[Teretonga]

It's not the chassis, it's the engine and I'd agree with the Paul Morgan factor mentioned earlier. Mercedes bought and paid for Ilmor technology but with one of the founding partners gone it simply may not work anymore. I hope I'm wrong and would love to be proven wrong but it's going to be a long road back for Mac's this year, or maybe even any other year in the near future.

[GTRMagic]

Plus the move into the new Paragon gin palace, which must have some impact as a distraction

[Meroo]

Newey past his prime?

[DriverT]

Not necessarily Newey past his prime. It was a bad performance, considering they've had 18 months to develop the car. I was surprised by their speed.

[Armco Bender]

From somewhere they need to find at least a second a lap,its going to take something more than a few tweaks to produce that.

[RWC]

I'll be interested in any tidbits of info on Mac in the coming months.I too agree it's mostly the engine.The very advanced MP4/18/19 chassis may be givving them ongoing trouble too.
Well,we KNOW it is but the question is-How long before they clear up the trivial little problems with it?Is it a step too far?The whole concept of the car was meant to be "take everything to it's limits"

Besides all that,Mac tend to qualify further back and run longer-a strategy that worked well for ther car setup last year.And the cold weather wasn't doing ANY favours for the allready slightly slow Michie's.
Overall bernie is wrong *as allways*,no surprise there.
Mac will imrove alot and be in with a shout of the champs.


Most of this will depend on the tyre war and how much mac and willi take points off each other

[twig]

As a McLaren fan i agree with you RWC, except for the "Mac will improve a lot and be in with a shout of the champs."

They will improve, at least i hope they will, and if they do, you would hope it would be a lot, but not for a shout of the champs. The Ferrari is TOO good.

We all saw how dominant the Ferrari's were, and even improving a lot will not be enough to catch up to the Ferraris.

[Smokey 6 litre]

The McLaren will improve a lot over the season, but there could be a situation like at williams last year where they unlock the potential too late.

[climb]

IMO Williams too are (re-)running the same risk

[BootsOntheSide]

It's astonishing that they cna be so far off the pace, having had so long developing the car. They don't even seem much quicker than the MP4-17 was at the START of last season, and that was heavily updated as the title challenge went on.

It's hard to say exactly what has gone wrong. They are clearly down on power, but the handling didn't look too good either. Maybe Kimi and David didn't fight hard enough to get a result out of it, the way Montoya did with the mediocre Williams last year.

A lot of factors point to a possible McLaren decline. Renault and BAR have got things together imrpessively of latae, and Toyota could be on the up. Ilmor haven't recovered from the loss of Paul Morgan - it could be that Mercedes need to redouble their investment and provide more top cars. Adrian Newey is losing impact, and may end up leaving to design America's Cup yachts (which has long been his dream). Lastly, Ron Dennis is approaching 60 and may be losing the lust for victory. All that stands in tehir favour is the likely 2005 driver line-up.