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Mclaren has always been like this. I followed them closely when Mika and Kimi were driving for the team and they were actually quite consistent even then: a good car was usually followed by a bad car which won races at the end of the season. You never knew whether they'd fight for the championship the following year.
I don't see why McLaren would write the 2014 year off. They will fight, and fight hard they will. Past 2014, things will look brighter as McLaren will probably effectively become Honda's works team. However, there is a good chance they will give up on 2013 car development some time soon. It's probably just not worth to fight hard when the best you're fighting for is 5th position in WCC and when you also need to put resources into 2014 car with brand new engine. Almost every team will do this towards year's end.
You're not gonna win a championship with Button as your number one driver unless you produce a car far superior to the opposition.
You're not gonna win a championship unless you produce a car superior to the opposition.Quote:
Originally Posted by faster69
One problem they could have though is that 2014 marks the end of the engine freeze and McLaren is not a works team. If there is an on-going in-season engine development, the factory team is going to get priority, while at the moment all engines seem virtually matched.Quote:
Originally Posted by zako85
We can remember that 10 and more years ago there was certainly a horsepower deficiency in customer engines compared to works engines. For instance we can recall that back in 1993 the same McLaren's Ford engine was rumoured to have something like 30 or 50 HP less than the 'works' Benetton team.
I certainly think McLaren have the weakest pairing of the top teams and that isn't helping when their car is below expectations. I don't know if Button is weak at extracting speed out of a difficult car or he just gives that impression whenever he's interviewed? Perez appears to find the extra speed but encounters different problems to Button and his no grip, no heat tyre issues.
I agree that they leave such impression. But it isn't necessarily something set in stone. Does it mean McLaren in 2011 had a weak line-up? Because apparently the same Button was a team leader that year and seemingly did a very impressive job.Quote:
Originally Posted by henners88
Sometimes I wonder, what would have happened if Hamilton left straight after 2011 and we would have the 2013 situation right after. Button would be considered a top driver and no-one would complain.
However, it has to be said that Button at the age of 33 can't afford to get beaten by Pérez any more. Of course it can't be said that driver at such relatively young age is "past his prime", evidenced by the impressive speed of Räikkönen at the same age. But Button is in such age, where he has to deliver and keep up his performance level, otherwise younger drivers would become more attractive for teams to hire.
Possibly, but ongoing engine development may well lead to unreliability, unless they use McLaren as the scapegoats!Quote:
Originally Posted by jens
McLaren's line up in 2011 was certainly weakened by an under-performing Lewis Hamilton and Button had a better year no doubt. He was consistent and got involved in less incidents to secure way more points. Then we had 2012 where Hamilton completely wiped the floor with Jenson for much of the year and in a more dominant fashion to the previous year IMO. The points at the end of that year barely told a true story to what happened on track in my view. I just want to see Jenson have a good year where he truly out performs his team mate and deals with the problems rather than complaining about the usual lack of grip, can't get heat in the tyres and the odd radio message where he informs the team the car is un-driveable whilst his team mate battles ahead of him. Jenson can be a frustrating driver to watch for me and as much as its a pleasure to see him do well and win, its also something that shouldn't really be a surprise considering the success around him and the support system he has. Being out qualified and performed by an unpredictable Perez really shouldn't be happening for a driver of his calibre and experience. He needs to address the issues himself as the car can obviously go faster as demonstrated. Hamilton has a similar situation at Mercedes although not as bad as he's within a couple of tenths of Rosberg but like Jenson has outperformed his team mate too this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by jens
Fair enough. However, back in 1993 Benetton supposedly had an exclusive works agreement with Ford that prevented customer engines from having the latest technology in them. Based on one source, I heard that the customer Ford engine was 1 year old. From other source, just a few months old, not a huge deal. Anyways, that didn't seem to hurt McLaren-Ford a lot, as Senna ended up beating both Damon Hill and Schumacher, who was driving the Benetton. No one knows what the current agreements are. Granted, in the wicked world of F1 competition such agreements can not be enforced 100%.Quote:
Originally Posted by jens