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[What's Burning?]

and excerpt from the F1.com interview with Martin Whitmarsh.

Q: Can you pinpoint the cause of the problems?
MW: Frankly the car is not fast enough. With the benefit of hindsight we were too ambitious last year. We had a competitive car and made decisions to make very big changes in the expectation of aggressively making a big step forward - and that backfired. In hindsight we should have evolved what was already a competitive car. We didn’t do that and are paying the cost of it - but we are learning a lot from all this pain. If I try to look for positives, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and it makes us more resilient. Of course, I’d like to be competitive now. I love to go to races with a realistic prospect of winning. The team has won 182 Grands Prix and I have been around for just over 100 of them and it is never enough. (laughs) So if you are in a period like this it is not the most satisfying thing to go motor racing.

I have to say I give the guy credit for an honest answer in simply saying they screwed up. Reading the entire interview however, he sounds like a man with his tail between his legs at the moment.

[Hammer278]

"In hindsight we should have evolved what was already a competitive car"

This was what all the McLaren fans were screaming about, why didn't they just take a fast car and improve it? Especially when the cars are going to be very very different, everyone's going to have a revolutionary machine come 2014...so McLarens step was not only a gamble, it was just very bad timing IMO. But I figured a simple decision like this would be peanuts for a corporation like McLaren.

Man, can you imagine the hate for McLaren if Lewis was still stuck there? Good thing for them he left.

[NHcheese]

McLaren made a new car at the wrong time. They should have improved on an already competitive car which they had many updates for and designed a new car when the v6 engines came in.

[Jabberwocky]

Will the suspension work transfer over to the new car?

[PartsaS]

Will the suspension work transfer over to the new car?

Probably yes... Even if the chassis will change they will most likely use the same technology. although I still can't see any benefits of the pullrod system. The only teams using it, Ferrari n McLaren, do not have a better ride, grip or tyre management than the others. All these efforts for nothing?
Maybe some ideas work in theory but not on the track. Although Ferrari are (and were last year) strong champion contenters the car isn't as quick overall as Redbull, Mercedes, Renault.
So even if there is a major difference to the 2014 cars, the best suspention system to use, has proven to be pushrod(as it was for so many years before)

[PartsaS]

If I was in Martins shoes, I would throw mp4-28 and everything that has to do with that toaster to the garbage. I would borrow every aerodynamic aspect I could from mp4-27, I would use good old pushrod susp. and I would start development from now - there is no point putting efforts and money on this joke of a car, since every improvement you make the others will always be 2 or three steps ahead.
I remember the excitement I had last fall, for the new season to begin... who would have thought, people in high places within the team would be so stupid to gamble, when they already had everything. %&%@&#%$@#@@%#&&#@@#$*&$&$%&#

[racechick]

I feel for you Partas. It's horrible when you're excited for the season and it goes wrong from the off.

[NHcheese]

It is even worse when your team says they are pinning all their hopes on next year and won't to this year.

[What's Burning?]

The only McLaren fans with a semblence of a smile at the track on Sunday were Checo fans.

[Hammer278]

If I was in Martins shoes, I would throw mp4-28 and everything that has to do with that toaster to the garbage. I would borrow every aerodynamic aspect I could from mp4-27, I would use good old pushrod susp. and I would start development from now - there is no point putting efforts and money on this joke of a car, since every improvement you make the others will always be 2 or three steps ahead.
I remember the excitement I had last fall, for the new season to begin... who would have thought, people in high places within the team would be so stupid to gamble, when they already had everything. %&%@&#%$@#@@%#&&#@@#$*&$&$%&#

Are you that naive? I can't believe people are saying "scrap the 28, bring back the 27!!!" hell if they do that, you'll see the McLaren struggling to beat Caterham! Like it or not the 28 is an improvement over the 27 by now, but its just not as big as they'd like. There's nothing they can go back to, even if they wanted....it was just a major f**k up trying to be too smart this year for no reasons, especially when everything changes next year all over again.

[NHcheese]

Last year they had said that they had not used all the upgrades they had and were going to transfer it to the next car, which was why they decided instead of madly upgrading to make a new car altogether and because testing was so good they did not have time to fix the problem. They should have just put the upgrades on the 27 earlier in the year. If they don't change they will end up like Williams.

[Denthúl]

If I was in Martins shoes, I would throw mp4-28 and everything that has to do with that toaster to the garbage. I would borrow every aerodynamic aspect I could from mp4-27, I would use good old pushrod susp. and I would start development from now - there is no point putting efforts and money on this joke of a car, since every improvement you make the others will always be 2 or three steps ahead.
I remember the excitement I had last fall, for the new season to begin... who would have thought, people in high places within the team would be so stupid to gamble, when they already had everything. %&%@&#%$@#@@%#&&#@@#$*&$&$%&#

Are you that naive? I can't believe people are saying "scrap the 28, bring back the 27!!!" hell if they do that, you'll see the McLaren struggling to beat Caterham! Like it or not the 28 is an improvement over the 27 by now, but its just not as big as they'd like. There's nothing they can go back to, even if they wanted....it was just a major f**k up trying to be too smart this year for no reasons, especially when everything changes next year all over again.

Not necessarily.

Let's imagine that the pull-rod suspension they've switched to, like Ferrari, is going to be more commonplace from next year onwards. Like Ferrari, McLaren will already have gone through the painful year of dealing with the problems and can then start on the road to turning it into a winner. Other teams will have to make the switch and risk going through the same thing, but these two teams are ahead. Given that they stated they'd pretty much got everything that they could out of the design route they'd taken with the last car, making a change now rather than when the new regulations came in made sense, as it gives them the potential to try out a bunch of new things in advance and take advantage of that when the regulations change. There are really two ways this can go. If McLaren win one or both of the championships next year, nobody will remember 2013. If they end up fighting with Force India again, then they will and the negative comments will continue.

[What's Burning?]

There are really two ways this can go. If McLaren win one or both of the championships next year, nobody will remember 2013. If they end up fighting with Force India again, then they will and the negative comments will continue.

The fact that they're fighting Force India at all is troubling. Ferrari's Pushrod suspension switch year, they were fighting for a WDC until
Brazil. Something went very awry at Mclaren.

[CookinFlat6]

Why are we all avoiding the elephant in the room?

Whitmarsh and the team changed the car because of Button. The car was conceived during his hapless period last year. It's why Lewis left with a smirk on his face saying he'd rather take a year out, and it's why Paddy left

Proof? Button himself crowed endlessly about how it was his team now, the team listened to his direction and it was the best macca ever, remember he also said the 27 was the worst car in his time at the team

Whitmarsh keeps saying, let's give JB a car he can do well in, they are on their way to that

Except it's a never ending story, BAR spent years, Macca only just got started

Look at any forum out there and they are saying the same thing a few of us have been saying on here for years

And it's becoming clearer that Ron has tried to oust Whitmarsh but has run out of influence mostly due to the disastrious road car venture

[andrew]

Why are we all avoiding the elephant in the room?

There's an elephant? Quick, phone the zoo. One of their elephants has escaped! Don't panic!

There are really two ways this can go. If McLaren win one or both of the championships next year, nobody will remember 2013. If they end up fighting with Force India again, then they will and the negative comments will continue.

The fact that they're fighting Force India at all is troubling. Ferrari's Pushrod suspension switch year, they were fighting for a WDC until
Brazil. Something went very awry at Mclaren.

Reminds me of Ducatti in MotoGP. They tried to be too revolutionary and rather than evolve the previous years machine, they started from scratch with something that was good on paper but a total mutt on the track.