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[What's Burning?]

Moved a handful of posts over to the McLaren thread as there was nothing specific to JB in the quoted articles.

[CookinFlat6]

After all the talk of rebooting the season, learning from mistakes, 'vowing to improve' etc etc, I am hoping McLaren will forgive me if I dont take to the streets screaming and shouting that its all good now

[CookinFlat6]

Button thinks McLaren can beat Force India, and that he can get a podium at Spa

[Hammer278]

[sagi58]

When Button decides to leave F1, I hope he doesn't try his hand at Fortune Telling!

[racechick]

When he says the 2013 car suits his style of driving....does he mean slow?

[CookinFlat6]

Exactly right, his 'smooth' style needs a car that goes around the perfect racing line with no hint of instability or inbalance or loss of grip.

Only problem there is that cars that can go round the corner with instability or the risk of loss of grip will be faster in racing conditions away from the test track.

There is no surprise that the Mclaren is now like the Honda and BAR, where its capable of fast laps in the race but yet somehow its got too many issues to be fast in quali or beat the midfield

[What's Burning?]

Button thinks McLaren can beat Force India, and that he can get a podium at Spa

There's a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza has an epiphany. He realizes that every decision he's ever made in his life has been wrong and that he cannot in any case trust himself, so he will do exactly the opposite of what he would normally do. Immediately his life begins to turn around and things take a massive turn for the better. Reading those quotes reminded me of that episode.

[CookinFlat6]

For Button/Mclaren epiphany is not good for sponsors or PR. better they sound disturbingly good than honest.

Whitmarsh 'predicts' 10 years of success with Honda

They are not really a sporting outfit, more a media company

[What's Burning?]

You better hope they don't show up to the 2014 grid with a monster otherwise you'll be reaping what you've sewn.

Now let's leave the Button thread to rest a while since you've reached our Button mashing daily quota.

[Hammer278]

You better hope they don't show up to the 2014 grid with a monster otherwise you'll be reaping what you've sewn.

Now let's leave the Button thread to rest a while since you've reached our Button mashing daily quota.

Even with a monster car (I don't see how when Newey isn't there anyway) they're going to be using engines which Mercedes are providing from their reject warehouses.

I'm sure there's a clause for confidentiality/flexibility in providing a B grade engine in case McLaren switch suppliers, so tech secrets don't fall easily for Honda to just lap up.

2014 will be a 'modest' year for McLaren, I'm 99% sure of it. Unless the miracle of miracles actually happens like 2009, but Brawn isn't there....who's left anyway. Whitmarsh, Sam "Fired by Williams" Michael, and a bunch of guys spraying silver fish on all the rocket red victory T shirts to keep them wearable. Or maybe they should sell them, get some revenue to show Uncle Ron back at the MTC.

The McLaren thread is locked, so I had no choice.

[myownalias]

You're making the assumption that Mercedes will have the best engine in the new V6T era...

[Hammer278]

What are they missing to continue being the best in the new era? The only time an engine stood out in terms of performance when it wasn't Mercedes, was BMW when they were powering Williams. Apart from that, Ferrari were solid if not making headlines, Renault were marketing their flat 120 degree engines at one point to obtain a more aerodynamic car, Cosworth were supplying the rejects, who's left?

As for Honda, the last thing I remember about them is that Earth car....which they did bugger all with. They could spring a surprise though, but I don't see them having any 'advantage' over any other engine maker....Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault have credible experience in other categories using turbos and 6 cylinder engines already.

[myownalias]

Previous success means nothing, nobody knows how the Mercedes V6T will compare to Ferrari's V6T to Renault's V6T and indeed Honda's V6T and we won't know truly until next season. Honda also have history with turbo V6 engines as seen in 1987 and 1988, bottom line, previous success means absolutely nothing, lots of suppliers and teams have had previous success.

[What's Burning?]

We already know Ferrari is struggling with their power plant, and given the history of Renault engines and KERS, I highly doubt they'll be able to produce anything better, or even equal to the Mercedes unit on the grid.

I'd even say that when Honda shows up, they'd likely have the second best powerplant on the grid having had access to the Merc unit for the previous year.