FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[sagi58]

... the above is for Sagi58 and any other F1 followers who are not aware of it, because ofcourse the press shy away from doing their job when it comes to McLaren...

Grazie!! I appreciate the time and effort necessary for that!!
I even "understood" most of it!!

p.s. Have you considered the possibility that the press is too busy looking for things
to criticize about Ferrari to do their job properly when it comes to McLaren!!

[darwin dali]

Panic's the reason for the season
Formula 1 - McLaren woes caused by 2012 panic
McLaren's poor 2013 Formula 1 season was a result of an unnecessary panic during a fallow period in mid-2012, according to team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

The Woking team failed to take a podium finish this year for the first time since 1980, despite ending 2012 as F1's pacesetter.

Whitmarsh now believes the team went fundamentally awry in summer 2012, when it over-reacted to a performance dip and decided it had to take a new direction with its '13 design.

"Last year we had a quick car. And if we had had more operational reliability then we could have won the championship," Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT.

"Around mid-year, when we were making decisions about this year's car, I guess we had a slight dip in our performance.

"What tends to happen is that every now and again you get on a roll and you get a good upturn in performance and you feel good with life.

"Occasionally it goes flat for a while and then you start to worry and fret and panic.

Ambition behind McLaren's 2013 struggles

"We were looking at our development last year, we had a reasonable car, and then it did not respond in development terms.

"Every week you are delivering 1.5-2 points of downforce and when you go for a six week period of not doing that, you start to worry.

"It was maybe at that time that the engineer team thought maybe our progress is horizontal and we need to break out of here."

MELBOURNE PANIC

He admitted that McLaren then got into a bigger mess with this year's car, but was pleased with how it regained ground despite abandoning development very early.

"We got ourselves panicked into a horrible position in Melbourne where we were nailing the car's ride height on a bumpy circuit and going in the wrong direction," said Whitmarsh.

"We took a car that wasn't good enough and made it worse in my opinion, to be frank about it.

"We were behind and we have now focused on the effort of the coming years. There is a limit on what we could do this year.

"But Red Bull aside, we have gone forward. At the last four or five races, we were racing with Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus.

"So we have made relative gains, and we have not for three or four months done any base work on the car, just running experiments in FP1 and going from there."

[racechick]

Lewis was getting podiums during that mid 2012 'fallow' period! Backed the wrong horse Martin! Why not cut your losses and admit it.

[CookinFlat6]

Funny how it wasnt long ago that any suggestion that the 2013 front suspension was conceived during the period Button couldnt warm up his tyres last year was shouted down and treated with derision.

When some of us suggested that Paddy was upset about all the engineers tasked with helping Button at the detriment of Lewis, we were called conspiracy theorists

When every engineer in the team were huddled over Lewis' data working out how Button could warm his tyres up the pull rod suspension was decided upon. The same pull rod Ferrari regretted switching to, in fact it was said that Ferraris only real benefit from the pullrod, apart from a small aero gain was........

Will Ferrari make the switch back to push-rod this year? Personally I don’t think so as it would be a massive admission of failure and the gain either way is minimal.

More likely is a switch back to push-rod for the 2013 car, unless the aero gains become more apparent in the re-design. Ferrari’s win in Malaysia makes things a little more interesting as the supposed mechanically disadvantaged pull-rod should not in theory yield benefit on a slippery surface.

However, the story of Ferrari’s victory (notwithstanding the tremendous efforts of Fernando Alonso) is in its ability to switch on the tyres in damp conditions better that its competitors, something which the Sauber appears even more adept at.

Sauber, the only other team on pull rod, where a certain Sergio Perez looked like the smoothest tyre whisperer available and a no brainer to assist Button if Lewis were ever to leave (or be pushed out)

[racechick]

Words just fail!!

[CookinFlat6]

Its criminal. If it wasnt for the chance I'd probably get done for wasting police time, I would have called the feds to make a formal complaint by now

[racechick]

This is a real flashback to March last year, and looks at the differences then with the McLaren to its predecessor and to other cars. Still a bit technical for me, but might mean more to some of you guys. I kindov skim read it.
https://twitter.com/somersf1/status/417273618746200064

[CookinFlat6]

So during a period that Button got 7 points in 6 races, yet Lewis was matching the Red Bulls, taking pole and winning races, Whitmarsh panicked and agreed big changes to the fastest car of 2012.
And by his own admission spent the start of 2013 trying to make a bad car better.

yet he still believes his lead driver is PEERLESS when it comes to technical feedback

Oh well the good thing is that he has confirmed that there will be no excuses for not winning races in 2014
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/9041347/martin-whitmarsh-admits-no-excuses-for-mclaren-not-to-win-races-again-in-2014

Sounds familiar from Feb 2012
http://f1pulse.com/news/2012022794/button-there-are-no-excuses-this-year

But hold on, whats the boss saying here?

Q: Can you outline McLaren’s master plan for 2014? You will run a car with an engine that is only good for 2014, so it will seem like this season all over again - running one car whilst designing another, knowing that at the end of the season the current car goes on the trash heap…
MW: I cannot say that it’s an ideal situation, but I don’t want to make excuses either. No excuses. We should be able to win. Sure, it’s a bit of a compromise - but nothing is ideal in life. Our future is secure with the seven-year partnership with Honda, so we are fighters and racers and we will go out there and do a good job. No more years like this one!

Back to the top with a winning car in 2014 or security for the next 7 years?

So McLaren expect to win next year because they have the best drivers available who can beat Alonso, Kimi, Lewis, Seb etc?

Q: Do you expect Kevin to be the next Lewis?
MW: I certainly hope so. The honest answer is that I believe that he could be - but if you ask me do you know, then no, I don’t. There is a lot of risk. That is why my first choice for Kevin was to put him in another team and do a year or two and then bring him back. That was my first choice - and if that was not possible apart from some very small teams, he joined us.

Ah but ofcourse Button can win even if the car is not the best?

The 2009 championship winner had told reporters that his result at Interlagos had "put a smile on everyone's face," and added: "the management is good here.

"They've had a tough time of it this year and everybody is quoting figures."

"It's always going to be the case when you have a difficult year."

"You're going to look for someone to blame but I think they've come through it very well and I think they're strong and going to do a good job next year."

Button doesnt seem to realise that he is the managements lead driver at McLaren

Get your tickets, mother of all comedies starts at Jerez

[Hammer278]

Button, the biggest paddock hustler in F1.

[racechick]

Q: Do you expect Kevin to be the next Lewis?

MW: I certainly hope so. The honest answer is that I believe that he could be - but if you ask me do you know, then no, I don’t. There is a lot ofnh risk. That is why my first choice for Kevin was to put him in another team and do a year or two and then bring him back. That was my first choice - and if that was not possible apart from some very small teams, he joined us.

but he had the REAL Lewis! And squandered it!! He had the real Lewis and the fastest car and he pissed it all up the wall!

[Hammer278]

It's okay, I'm very glad he pissed it up the wall....result is Lewis now in a team which is ready to dominate the next half a decade and I finally get to support a team as a whole again since end of 2006.

[What's Burning?]

Q: Do you expect Kevin to be the next Lewis?

MW: I certainly hope so. The honest answer is that I believe that he could be

but he had the REAL Lewis! And squandered it!! He had the real Lewis and the fastest car and he pissed it all up the wall!

Shhhh... do yo know how uncomfortable things must have been like there last year when they just "knew" where things were going? Not for nothing but does anyone doubt that Lewis would have put that POS car on the podium come hell or high water? Instead, they have their worst season in 33 years.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

[CookinFlat6]

Whitmarsh did his best. He had his own WDC driver, gave him all the best engineers, wept for him, had the team built around him, had the car designed around his strengths, instead of 2 strong drivers, got a number 2 driver with similar tyre skills to complement. All design effort went in 1 direction, no need to dilute around 2 different style drivers like with Lewis/Button

The grand result? - the worst relative year ever in McLaren history

Good thing is Whitmarsh has another shot at it, this time with a number 2 driver who is not like Button but hopefully like.....
...
....
...Lewis

(one cannot pay for comedy gold like this nowadays)

[racechick]

Indeed, indeed, Cookie and WB!! One has to smile

Ps. Of course he'd have had that car on the podium!! No doubt there!

[NHcheese]

Kevin will be rockin' out next year and you all will see! YEAH! GO MAG! GO MAG!