McLaren Sitting Pretty

legion · 11-14-2009, 07:15 PM

You'd think that McLaren had a fantastic season with how the post-season is going...

Kimi was by for a visit earlier this week, Jenson is touring the facilities this weekend. They literally have world champions lining up at their door. Poor Heiki doesn't have a chance! (Which is too bad, because he does well in a good car. He just can't nurse a crappy car...)

Now, I understand that their substantial budget and unwillingness to give up (they did improve the 2009 car substantially during the season) probably pays into this. No one seems to think that they will have two bad seasons...

KNS · 11-15-2009, 10:03 AM

And Ruebens went to Williams? With the new Cosworth engine they are going to spend a year just in development.

Joeaksa · 11-15-2009, 03:02 PM

One thing is for sure, next year will be an interesting one in Formula One...

TheMentat · TheMentat's Garage

I hope Button gets the seat at McLaren. Hamilton will destroy him. Sad to say, but I think Kimi has lost some of his mojo.

herr_oberst · 11-15-2009, 05:20 PM

I think McLaren did have a fantastic season, all things considered:
Developed the o8 car up until the last race, in order to win a championship for LH, while Honda/Brawn were off and running with the 09 version halfway thru the o8 season.
Spent a lot of the offseason (and treasure) on KERS, which turned out to be a joke,
Did not interpret the rules as well as Brawn (and others) and missed the chance to get early development on the double diffuser. In fact, this caused the factory to build an entirely new chassis.
Had the unfortunate incident with Martin Whitmarsh telling Lewis Hamilton to lie to the press and the FIA. Oops.

By the end of the season, they have a great car, a few fantastic drives and the chance to start the '10 season in control. The team is firing on all cylinders again, Ferrari is going to be nowhere for the first few races. (and I'm a Ferrari fan!)

legion · 11-15-2009, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Did not interpret the rules as well as Brawn (and others) and missed the chance to get early development on the double diffuser. In fact, this caused the factory to build an entirely new chassis.

Part of me thinks that the decision on the double-diffuser would have gone the other way had Mclaren had one. It was a lose-lose for them no matter what they did.

herr_oberst · 11-15-2009, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by legion

Part of me thinks that the decision on the double-diffuser would have gone the other way had Mclaren had one. It was a lose-lose for them no matter what they did.

I had never thought about it that way - excellent point.

Joeaksa · 11-16-2009, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMentat

I hope Button gets the seat at McLaren. Hamilton will destroy him. Sad to say, but I think Kimi has lost some of his mojo.

I lost all faith I had for Button when in one of the last couple of races he radioed into the pits complaining that "so and so will not move out of the way for me, can you work on that!" Well excuse me, someone should just move out of the way for the future world champion?

Senna or Schumacher would have just passed them and be done with it, but baby button complains on the radio trying to get someone to help him. A real champion would not have done that IMHO. He would not be world champion were it not for their having the best car on the grid for the first half of the season.

TheMentat · TheMentat's Garage

I wonder how McLaren will do without the Mercedes money to work with? Looks like Mercedes bought BrawnGP and is divesting their holdings of McLaren.

herr_oberst · 11-16-2009, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMentat

I wonder how McLaren will do without the Mercedes money to work with? Looks like Mercedes bought BrawnGP and is divesting their holdings of McLaren.

McLaren seems to have the whole F1 thing figured out - remember when Marlboro pulled out _ I figured they were done for, that had been a very long term, VERY lucrative deal- then they went out and became associated with the West brand and went right back to top form.(And who had ever heard of West cigarettes before that? Not me!) I realize this is different, but I don't doubt that McLaren always has a plan "B" for any eventuality.

(For contrast, look at how Williams has floundered since their glory days)

(who knows, maybe McLaren has resources in place to build their own engines!)

MFAFF · 08:55 AM

I think Mercedes saw the writing on the wall with McLaren building the 'son of F1' road car with its own engine....

This deal allows Mercedes to have its own branded cars 'winning' or if that does not happen then a Mercedes team can still win...it will still be the Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes team...

If McL do make their own Formula One engine at some point they will be able to compare it to a current and top flight F1 engine....

Win win to me...save McLaren Holdings having to find $400M to buy out Mercedes...(in phases until 2011).

Joeaksa · 11-16-2009, 01:22 PM

Ok gents, whats everyone think/feel about Lotus returning?

Am glad to see them back!

herr_oberst · 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Ok gents, whats everyone think/feel about Lotus returning?

Am glad to see them back!

At this point, it's as insignificant as Brabham, or Jordan or Tyrrell returning.

F1 is a very difficult game to play these days. Billions of dollars have been wasted by very wealthy individuals and factories.
A consortium bought a famous name to try and attract sponsorship.
History has not been kind to this sort of an effort, after a few years of bleeding cash, maybe they will be sold to a manufacturer. Probably the best to hope for.
I don't want to see them fail, but I hold little hope for the effort.
(And I'm much more interested in Team USA at this point, but I have the same reservations and expectations for them as I do for the Lotus effort)

Joeaksa · 11-16-2009, 02:14 PM

Assume everyone has seen that Mercedes just bought the Brawn F1 team?

Mercedes buys BRAWN F1 TEAM!

Tervuren · Tervuren's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

I lost all faith I had for Button when in one of the last couple of races he radioed into the pits complaining that "so and so will not move out of the way for me, can you work on that!" Well excuse me, someone should just move out of the way for the future world champion?

Senna or Schumacher would have just passed them and be done with it, but baby button complains on the radio trying to get someone to help him. A real champion would not have done that IMHO. He would not be world champion were it not for their having the best car on the grid for the first half of the season.

Have you ever heard of Eddie Ervine and Senna getting into a tussel post race because Senna thought lapped traffic should just move out of his way?

Joeaksa · 11-17-2009, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tervuren

Have you ever heard of Eddie Ervine and Senna getting into a tussel post race because Senna thought lapped traffic should just move out of his way?

Possibly but Senna did not call in on the radio asking the pits to get the traffic to move out of his way.

legion · 11-17-2009, 05:36 AM

Calling in to your crew chief to ask someone to get out of your way is common in NASCAR--especially with lapped traffic. I can see it for lapped traffic towards the end of a race, but not for someone on the same lap--that's why it's called "racing".

*******

Well, I hope McLaren is working on developing their own engines. MB buying Brawn seems to indicate that McLaren will no longer be their "factory" team.

Joeaksa · 11-17-2009, 05:49 AM

Sorry but CRASHCAR is not real racing. Please do not compare it in any way to Formula One.

Tervuren · Tervuren's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Possibly but Senna did not call in on the radio asking the pits to get the traffic to move out of his way.

True
Ayrton Senna Suzuka 1993

fumanchu · 11-17-2009, 09:30 AM

Button very close to closing the deal w/ McLaren

autosport.com - F1 News: Button closing on McLaren switch

Could be a ploy.... up to the last minute by Button's management. I am somewhat surprised by this. Kimi could be in WRC or relaxing in Switzerland with 17 million not to drive from ferrari in '10. If he does drive in F1, he only gets 10 million.... I suppose he wants more than 7 million from McLaren to make the deal worthwhile.

Maybe he'll just eat some ice cream instead just like at the China GP.

Would be sad to see a no BS driver like that go, after all the a$$kissers and manipulators that swarm in the series currently.