2016 McLaren F1 Team - Honda

[Sayeman]

"Button claims car was ‘undriveable’ in the wet"
"My car felt almost undriveable during the wet opening laps – we were struggling to get heat into the rear tyres, and were locking the rear wheels whenever we hit the brakes, which was a bit scary," the 2009 World Champion said.
http://www.planetf1.com/news/button-cla ... n-the-wet/

[Gaz.]

It's not that easy and there is no quick fix.
Ever since they decided to start from scratch for the 2013 season they've been on the back foot. Where other teams have developed two basic designs for the last 8 years (2009-2013 and 2014-2016) McLaren did four (2009-2012, 2013, 2014, 2015-2016). This means they are now at least a year down on development. You can also see that when they had some success over this period, wins or podiums, they were in the same development cycle as the rest.

The Honda engine isn't what it could be yet, but that just masks the big problems McLaren brings on itself.

I'd go further than that and say Mclaren did 7 basic designs- 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015-16. Remember they tried that fan tail concept for 2011 that didn't make it past winter testing.

[Jolle]

It's not that easy and there is no quick fix.
Ever since they decided to start from scratch for the 2013 season they've been on the back foot. Where other teams have developed two basic designs for the last 8 years (2009-2013 and 2014-2016) McLaren did four (2009-2012, 2013, 2014, 2015-2016). This means they are now at least a year down on development. You can also see that when they had some success over this period, wins or podiums, they were in the same development cycle as the rest.

The Honda engine isn't what it could be yet, but that just masks the big problems McLaren brings on itself.

I'd go further than that and say Mclaren did 7 basic designs- 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015-16. Remember they tried that fan tail concept for 2011 that didn't make it past winter testing.

To me it feels like they keep chasing the MP4-4, but they forget themselves that in 1988 there were on paper only 6 competitive turbo cars (the McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus) And their rivals had an year old car (Ferrari) or a year old engine (lotus)

They are chasing their own shadows...

[GoranF1]

Little bird told me Honda's Canada upgrade will raise some eyebrows.....

[Mansell89]

Little bird told me Honda's Canada upgrade will raise some eyebrows.....

For the sake of competitive racing and Alonso and Button I hope this time their upgrade is substantial.

We need those guys at the front. Watching Alonso fling that McLaren around Monaco got me wanting to see Lewis, Danny Ricc, and Vettel in a real title battle.

With so much false promise so far though, they are up against the odds in terms of this really moving them forward.

[Thunder]

Little bird told me Honda's Canada upgrade will raise some eyebrows.....

Could that little Bird be a little more specific?

[Lucky]

https://twitter.com/svandoorne/status/7 ... 8649827334

[ncassi22]

Little bird told me Honda's Canada upgrade will raise some eyebrows.....

In terms of performance or layout?

[Chicane]

Hopefully Honda's Canada update will be something substantial cos Canada can be brutal on the power units as the drivers are around 72% of the lap on full throttle. Even Hamilton was told to save fuel last year in Canada.

[Vasconia]

Hopefully Honda's Canada update will be something substantial cos Canada can be brutal on the power units as the drivers are around 72% of the lap on full throttle. Even Hamilton was told to save fuel last year in Canada.

This is even worse. Lack of power plus they have to save fuel. Canada could be a nightmare.

I hope this filming day means that the updated PU is ready to be introduced in Canada.

[Thunder]

Posted by "SophieB" on the Autosport Forums:

From Autosport:
Analysis: Analysis: Why McLaren-Honda F1 team struggled in Monaco Grand Prix

...the drivers struggled to get the tyres working properly throughout the weekend, particularly the fronts, so suffered badly with understeer.
Autosport understands this problem relates to McLaren's aerodynamic philosophy, which is to pursue downforce with a minimal drag penalty to mitigate for the performance deficit of the Honda engine.
Monaco is a circuit where drag is not an issue, but McLaren is not prepared to alter its philosophy just to be competitive at one track.
The team did not bring a Monaco-specific aero package, so lacked downforce compared to the top cars and therefore struggled to get the sensitive Pirelli tyres into their correct working temperature range.

[GoranF1]

Posted by "SophieB" on the Autosport Forums:

From Autosport:
Analysis: Why McLaren-Honda F1 team struggled in Monaco Grand Prix
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... 1458713806

...the drivers struggled to get the tyres working properly throughout the weekend, particularly the fronts, so suffered badly with understeer.
Autosport understands this problem relates to McLaren's aerodynamic philosophy, which is to pursue downforce with a minimal drag penalty to mitigate for the performance deficit of the Honda engine.
Monaco is a circuit where drag is not an issue, but McLaren is not prepared to alter its philosophy just to be competitive at one track.
The team did not bring a Monaco-specific aero package, so lacked downforce compared to the top cars and therefore struggled to get the sensitive Pirelli tyres into their correct working temperature range.

i think this qoute is more important...

Autosport understands this problem relates to McLaren's aerodynamic philosophy, which is to pursue downforce with a minimal drag penalty to mitigate for the performance deficit of the Honda engine.

Monaco is a circuit where drag is not an issue, but McLaren is not prepared to alter its philosophy just to be competitive at one track.

The team did not bring a Monaco-specific aero package, so lacked downforce compared to the top cars and therefore struggled to get the sensitive Pirelli tyres into their correct working temperature range.

McLaren cannot afford to add less-efficient downforce unless the Honda engine improves substantially.

Honda has yet to confirm when it will spend more development tokens to further improve the performance of its power unit, but in the meantime McLaren is having to compromise with its chassis to exploit what is there.

That's why a race that should have suited McLaren ultimately proved a struggle.

[bauc]

If Honda use tokes in Canada, will the drivers be hit by grid penalties? I'm bit confused about that cycle after 4-5 races ect

[Andres125sx]

Little bird told me Honda's Canada upgrade will raise some eyebrows.....

I hate you, now expectations will be high, and we all know what have happened in the past when expectations with McHonda were high....

Anycase I really hope that little bird is not a raven

[ncassi22]

If Honda use tokes in Canada, will the drivers be hit by grid penalties? I'm bit confused about that cycle after 4-5 races ect

No. They can use any engine as long as they don't exceed 5 per season. E'g they could use the Monaco one in Hungary again if they wanted to etc.