godlameroso wrote: ↑14 Sep 2017, 14:05
The schedule wasn't kept, the targets took longer to achieve than anticipated, but they are starting to deliver. Vandoorne had the pace to be in the top 10 in Monza of all places. They couldn't do that at all the last two years.
First off, Vandoorne absolutely did not have the pace to finish top 10 in Monza, at all, his car failed while he was in 10th... he hadn't made his pitstop, when he made his pitstop he was 100% going to end up behind Sainz meaning 14th, that is the pace he had. He was the only man to have not made a pitstop.
Then he was running about 10 seconds ahead of Alonso and would have come out 10 seconds ahead but was on the softer tire then Alonso would have likely been faster over the last stint, Alonso was 123 seconds behind before he slowed down then retired, 123 seconds behind on lap 49 that is. In 2016 Button finished only 91 seconds behind in Monza.
Even if you argued Vandoorne would have finished 10th(he absolutely wouldn't have at all), it was still going to be significantly further behind than Mclaren finished in 2016. Position is irrelevant to performance. If 15 cars get in one crash and a Mclaren finished 3rd with two Saubers behind, that doesn't change their performance and if they finished 100 seconds behind and finished 3rd they are still 100 seconds behind. Time behind is relevant when comparing performance to the teams Honda and Mclaren want to beat. They didn't have an improvement in Monza, they weren't more competitive at Monza this year than last year.
Keep in mind that Vandoorne before his car issues was 75 seconds down on lap 31 of the race, while Button was 91 seconds down after the full race and that included 2 pitstops to the leaders 1 stop. Both years Merc's were absolutely cruising out front for the majority of the race under zero pressure and could absolutely have gone faster as well.
As such I would also say that on the idea they are starting to deliver on their targets, no they really aren't. They were pretty much 3 seconds off the leaders pace in Spa and Monza, and it doesn't matter if those are power tracks and at a few tracks the gap is less because they actually have to race and be competitive at all tracks to go for a title and that was both Mclaren and Honda's goal for 2016 let alone late 2017. They are an absolute mile off in performance and there is absolutely no sign of large gains at all. The best Mclaren/Honda were looking at was 14/15th in Monza and that is with a far superior chassis to all those around them up to Red Bull, with a similar budget and chassis quality to a TR or anyone else they'd have been fighting even further back. But neither driver finished the race either, along with dire performance they had two retirements and couldn't even handle that miserable pace without breaking.
