2022 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[Ground Effect]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

[Big Tea]

It will do more harm than good to procrastinate if they are eventually going to show him the door. Nearly every race his sad depressed face and those lame excuses are associated with his face, and therefore with every sponsor. The sponsors won't be happy seeing that. The all smiling Riccardo is a thing of the past. The Monza win is a thing of the past. What is needed now is a driver who performs close to Norris and will develop to match Norris in a reasonable amount of time. Half a season might be reasonable, barely. 2 seasons or more is not.

But it for next year, so if Dan is 'sad' ( what, our Dan ) he will still be in the spot light until first race next year.
Better to help him get what he wants and have him talk to the media as if he was in on it from the beginning.

[the EDGE]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again

Changing the driver is a waste of time when not even Lando can get the car to the top

It’s just distraction to the real problem, which should be building a car capable of winning. That should be the main focus

[mwillems]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Yeah totally, although the last time I raised this it turned into a key/promodou are rubbish thread.

I do think we need to target some of the best engineers, it may be that we are doing it, but I never hear.

It'd be good to pick up a suspension expert from one of the top 3 as well as a few aero guys.

As much as anything it is about getting some of the knowledge from the top teams to get a bit of a boost.

[Emag]

I think the car this year has been good mechanically to be honest. That's mostly Key's department.

Where we lack compared to the top teams is aero I feel. They have even loaned some talent over to the indy team which makes no sense in my opinion but oh well.

I guess it's hard to find talented aerodynamicists, otherwise they would have hired them already.

[geogate]

the top 3 remain difficult to catch because they will be generally more efficient in every dept. Its one of the reasons why a budget cap alone isnt going to change things much in the short term. One man hour for them will achieve more than one man hour of a midfield team.
The car really isnt too bad once they started to figure it out. I suspect the upgrades they have made are still in the process of being switched on - but it will take them longer to get there than it does Mercedes. You look at how much they manage to bring to the car each weekend. There is no way at the moment Mclaren could match that.

[SmallSoldier]

the top 3 remain difficult to catch because they will be generally more efficient in every dept. Its one of the reasons why a budget cap alone isnt going to change things much in the short term. One man hour for them will achieve more than one man hour of a midfield team.
The car really isnt too bad once they started to figure it out. I suspect the upgrades they have made are still in the process of being switched on - but it will take them longer to get there than it does Mercedes. You look at how much they manage to bring to the car each weekend. There is no way at the moment Mclaren could match that.

It will be interesting too how the changes in the regulations for 2023 affect McLaren… There were comments that the changes (raising the floors) would help the likes of Mercedes, hopefully it also helps McLaren compare to the Ferrari / Red Bull

[McL-H]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again

Changing the driver is a waste of time when not even Lando can get the car to the top

It’s just distraction to the real problem, which should be building a car capable of winning. That should be the main focus

I agree with you to some extent. However, Daniel cost us P3 last year and is likely to cost us P4 this year. The fact we were fighting for P3 last year and have fallen down the order to only fight for P4 this year proofs your point and I fully agree that McLaren’s problems are bigger than the driver line-up. But we can’t ignore the negative role Ricciardo is playing in terms of the positions we actually are fighting for. He is way off of Lando and is not improving. That said, there is no guarantee it will improve with a driver switch, as Ricciardo is no Lance Stroll either.

[Slahinki]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again

Changing the driver is a waste of time when not even Lando can get the car to the top

It’s just distraction to the real problem, which should be building a car capable of winning. That should be the main focus

Making a car capable of winning is not handled by the same people that decide which drivers to go for. It is perfectly possible to be focused on making the car better, or making a better car, while simultaneously getting rid of a driver that is too far off his team mate and is bleeding points away. It's hardly a distraction or a waste of time when it is costing the team points.

[runningmanz]

That sums it all up doesn’t it. But let’s not forget Lando is on-par with the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen. Changing the 2nd driver might not lead to different results. I mean, we’ve seen the same last year between Verstappen/Perez and to a lesser degree Hamilton/Bottas. Perez and Bottas are not bad drivers. It’s just that their teammates came from a different planet. It could be very well that this time next year, Norris has ended Piastri’s career.

Daniel has beaten Max in the same car, Vettel in the same car and stolen wins from the most dominant team ever to exist in F1, Mercedes.

It’s clear where the problem lies, Mclaren’s car philosophy!

That was all in the distant past. Max progressed far far far beyond Riccardo. The problem lies with Ricciardo's inability, as can be seen by the fact that a younger less experienced teammate is thoroughly embarrassing him nearly 2 full seasons in a row.

There's no way of knowing how Dan would have faired if he stayed with Red Bull, however with those 8 dnfs (pretty much all not driver related) in 2018 there was an analysis done points adjusted where leading into the last 3 races he would have been pretty close to Max on points. Renault he finished strong in 2020. McLaren has been the only real struggle for him. He may get back to form in another team if he gets that chance, maybe not but to suggest he is no good anymore is a bit premature and disrespectful of his talents shown over a long period in F1 imo.

[mwillems]

I think the car this year has been good mechanically to be honest. That's mostly Key's department.

Where we lack compared to the top teams is aero I feel. They have even loaned some talent over to the indy team which makes no sense in my opinion but oh well.

I guess it's hard to find talented aerodynamicists, otherwise they would have hired them already.

I think it has, it has been much better in the slower and mid speed corners. I only say it because it is good to get an idea of how other peoples concepts are working as it adds a knowledge boost to the whole team. Bearing in mind they won't just understand the suspension but the intricacies of how it works with the floor concepts.

It might have been better to say that I think all departments need a fresh injection of top talent and knowledge from the teams that have the best concepts so that we can drive our own growth. To be fair, I doubt that it doesn't happen already, I'm sure we throw money at some folks, I just never hear about it.

[the EDGE]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again

Changing the driver is a waste of time when not even Lando can get the car to the top

It’s just distraction to the real problem, which should be building a car capable of winning. That should be the main focus

I agree with you to some extent. However, Daniel cost us P3 last year and is likely to cost us P4 this year. The fact we were fighting for P3 last year and have fallen down the order to only fight for P4 this year proofs your point and I fully agree that McLaren’s problems are bigger than the driver line-up. But we can’t ignore the negative role Ricciardo is playing in terms of the positions we actually are fighting for. He is way off of Lando and is not improving. That said, there is no guarantee it will improve with a driver switch, as Ricciardo is no Lance Stroll either.

Well I’m hoping Dan gets a drive with Alpine next year. If he does, and he’s on the pace of Ocon, it will tell us a lot about the Mcl36, and more importantly, the problem they need to solve before they can move forward

[Big Tea]

I think the car this year has been good mechanically to be honest. That's mostly Key's department.

Where we lack compared to the top teams is aero I feel. They have even loaned some talent over to the indy team which makes no sense in my opinion but oh well.

I guess it's hard to find talented aerodynamicists, otherwise they would have hired them already.

(With my false moustache and sunglasses on ) Is there a cost cap on Indy? I wonder what they are working on

What ever they learn stays learned.

[the EDGE]

Putting the Daniel/Piastri saga aside, does anyone else feel McLaren are still lacking in the Technical Department? AM recently made some headline grabbing hires, the top 3 is still the top 3. Maybe apart from the updating of infrastructure, Maybe McLaren need to bolster the Technical staff with people that have recent knowledge of competing at the front?

Well I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again

Changing the driver is a waste of time when not even Lando can get the car to the top

It’s just distraction to the real problem, which should be building a car capable of winning. That should be the main focus

Making a car capable of winning is not handled by the same people that decide which drivers to go for. It is perfectly possible to be focused on making the car better, or making a better car, while simultaneously getting rid of a driver that is too far off his team mate and is bleeding points away. It's hardly a distraction or a waste of time when it is costing the team points.

The engineers employed to design the car are as much the responsibility of Zac & Andreas, as the drivers employed to drive the car

[Balalu]

Every detail counts towards winning.