2016 McLaren F1 Team - Honda

[RedNEO]

This GP is last chance. If McLaren Honda together will still be fighting with ToroRosso Williams and Force India to get eventually and possibly few points from one driver it means the project is over right now and will not be possible to recover for 2017 the distance from top teams; Maybe podiums will come in 2018, Poor Alonso, his carreer is ending up sadly. Next years will be Redbul/Mercedes battle and Alonso Vettel Button should retire for the sake of theyr psyco resistance

The knee jerk is strong with this post. Also gain access to all the 2017 cars performance figures when did you? *Awkward yoda laugh*

[Dipesh1995]

This GP is last chance. If McLaren Honda together will still be fighting with ToroRosso Williams and Force India to get eventually and possibly few points from one driver it means the project is over right now and will not be possible to recover for 2017 the distance from top teams; Maybe podiums will come in 2018, Poor Alonso, his carreer is ending up sadly. Next years will be Redbul/Mercedes battle and Alonso Vettel Button should retire for the sake of theyr psyco resistance

I would agree with you if next year's regulations were stable but they're not. Everything is still to play for next year as along as McLaren and Honda get their heads down and find significant performance from the chassis and PU. Red Bull and Honda (Brawn) were nowhere in 2008 yet were fighting for the championship in 2009. Williams were nowhere in 2013 yet were fighting for podiums in 2014 so it shows what is possible. I doubt any of those teams would have performed like they did had the technical regulations not changed.

[zeph]

This GP is last chance. If McLaren Honda together will still be fighting with ToroRosso Williams and Force India to get eventually and possibly few points from one driver it means the project is over right now and will not be possible to recover for 2017 the distance from top teams; Maybe podiums will come in 2018, Poor Alonso, his carreer is ending up sadly. Next years will be Redbul/Mercedes battle and Alonso Vettel Button should retire for the sake of theyr psyco resistance

The knee jerk is strong with this post. Also gain access to all the 2017 cars performance figures when did you? *Awkward yoda laugh*

Yoda is NEVER awkward!

[RedNEO]

This GP is last chance. If McLaren Honda together will still be fighting with ToroRosso Williams and Force India to get eventually and possibly few points from one driver it means the project is over right now and will not be possible to recover for 2017 the distance from top teams; Maybe podiums will come in 2018, Poor Alonso, his carreer is ending up sadly. Next years will be Redbul/Mercedes battle and Alonso Vettel Button should retire for the sake of theyr psyco resistance

The knee jerk is strong with this post. Also gain access to all the 2017 cars performance figures when did you? *Awkward yoda laugh*

Yoda is NEVER awkward!

Hmm right you are I think

[nevill3]

How I just love that 'they will blame Honda again' nonsense

Not a single word about Honda/engine, only grip and tires:

Alonso: Lack of grip restricting McLaren
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3444 ... g-mclaren/
http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/2016/si ... -practice/

Obviously the unexpected power increase from the Honda engine is causing the tyres to spin up, see it is Honda's fault

Received a negative downvote for ranting when I was trying to be humorous, I guess it is hard to interpret the thought process behind someones post, but a humorous smilie at the end should have given a clue, sorry if I offended anyone

[PhillipM]

Same trouble as Monaco, can't keep the tyre temperatures in the right window. Should be better in the race.

[bobobaba]

What about the Merc engineer issue? I heard nothing recently. He should hve been working on improving,handling the mechanical issues with the car? Do I know well? So, Mc-Honda knows the problem but unable to solve it so far. I also think that 2018 will be the first year when GP win is possible.. but I hope strongly that it will come sooner.

[BeardedAce]

Even Fernando says Torro Rosso is better at high downforce street circuit -
"Toro Rosso is surprisingly good here, or let’s say they have a car that is good for a street circuit, with a lot of down force, a lot of drag but we know that after this track we should be in front of them regularly."

But ofcourse Boulier will disagree.
3rd best chassis of course.

[zeph]

The knee jerk is strong with this post. Also gain access to all the 2017 cars performance figures when did you? *Awkward yoda laugh*

Yoda is NEVER awkward!

Hmm right you are I think

My bad, I'll rephrase that:

Never awkward Yoda is

[Redragon]

What it is clear Honda is gaining faster that Mclaren department.
But at this time of the year it is a bit late to develop the chasis further as the team is focusing on 2017. It might have been 3rd fastest in February but right now looks more 5th or 6th on the grid. Maybe has always been but Honda problems were hiding it. Alonso talent will save the day again if not problems tomorrow as he has shown today.
The good sign is Honda could be finishing the year really close to the other 3 manufacturers leaving to Mclaren the responsability of really delivering a good chasis and not miss the opportunity of changes in regulation.
I am guessing Boulier and his team are feeling the cold.
WINTER IS COMING!!!

[Pany]

Yesss. I totally agree. Now everything is in mclaren hands. Will be very hard to get chassis at redbul level. Maybe 2018 will be the case, now is too late and winter is short. alonso should sign for a year more

[nevill3]

The prospects of the new regulations and the ending of the token system next year means any team could "do a Brawn" and develop a new car with a revised engine that beats all the others. I hope it is McLaren, Honda has been playing catch up but with the two years worth of data they now have, I fully expect them to rectify any engine deficiencies so it will be a case of how well integrated will the engine, chassis, tyres and aero are next year.

[iotar__]

What it is clear Honda is gaining faster that Mclaren department.
But at this time of the year it is a bit late to develop the chasis further as the team is focusing on 2017. It might have been 3rd fastest in February but right now looks more 5th or 6th on the grid. Maybe has always been but Honda problems were hiding it. Alonso talent will save the day again if not problems tomorrow as he has shown today.

I don't think you can spin it in any positive way:
- Focus on '17 - applies to everyone, more to smaller teams than McLaren, should be their advantage, bigger gap bigger space for getting better too (targets, reliability and engine that affected testing, development)
- 3rd fastest - and 4-5 now? They were never 3rd to begin with and certainly not in February,
- why would they fall behind later in the season - development adds up, whether you put more in March or April it's 100% at some stage - like now The way you put it their development is sub par.

I don't think so, I think that's where they are with the car in '16. Not good enough to begin with:
- they are way behind big teams on a non engine track (again = Monaco)
- clearly behind Toro Rosso with weaker '15 Ferrari engine that has not been developed for a ~year.
- It's like '15 Singapore slightly behind FI. Remove Lotus that should not have been there and it's almost the same result. They jumped Williams on tracks like that though.
- they are lucky with '17 aero changes, it might be hard to turn around bad '14 car (no engine excuse)

[Andres125sx]

(for Alonso, Button is not that good here because there are actual corners here asopposed to Monza)

You bad boy

[Andres125sx]

Yesss. I totally agree. Now everything is in mclaren hands. Will be very hard to get chassis at redbul level.

So you think Honda is at Mercedes perfomance level or at least it will be easy for them to reach Mercedes perfomance?