2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[f1universe]

You have to give credit to McLaren and specially Alonso, they made the most of two difficult races, first Australia coming from not so good pre-seson testing and yesterday after that unexplainable qualifying they did.

[Bisonas]

Fundamentally out performed by Torro Rosso...

Really?.. Take nothing away from Gasly, he's been on it all weekend. TR running brand new turbos and MGU-H for this weekend. One car nails it with a P4, the other comes last, again. Meanwhile McL play a good controlled race strategy to bring both home in the points and continue to look after the engines in a demanding circuit.

We'll wait for the engine penalties to rack up and come around.

There is a a little game behind the scenes involving Mclaren, TR and Honda, that no one really admits there is, but they all rubs it on eachother faces on every opportunity. It Is hilarious actually.
That Game dosn't have official standings. It only has a score and that is 1-1 atm. Its a fun one to watch.
Mclaren should't have to wait TR engine penalties to come on top of them.
They have to prove to everyone, including their fans, that the Mclaren-Renault, its a better race car than TR-Honda.
Not a more reliable car. That comes second. In everyone eyes they have to be a better race car.
So no excuses. Mclaren has a lot of things to prove this year.
I do believe they will come on top of all midfield teams at the end, but that's irrelevant.
Edit:
And when i mean on top, i mean on performance level. Not on official standings. Since i am not economicaly involved with the teams, as a F1 fan, i value, Car performance and Driver performance. Not place on the standings.

[Macklaren]

Fundamentally out performed by Torro Rosso...

Really?.. Take nothing away from Gasly, he's been on it all weekend. TR running brand new turbos and MGU-H for this weekend. One car nails it with a P4, the other comes last, again. Meanwhile McL play a good controlled race strategy to bring both home in the points and continue to look after the engines in a demanding circuit.

We'll wait for the engine penalties to rack up and come around.

There is a a little game behind the scenes involving Mclaren, TR and Honda, that no one really admits there is, but they all rubs it on eachother faces on every opportunity. It Is hilarious actually.
That Game dosn't have official standings. It only has a score and that is 1-1 atm. Its a fun one to watch.
Mclaren should't have to wait TR engine penalties to come on top of them.
They have to prove to everyone, including their fans, that the Mclaren-Renault, its a better race car than TR-Honda.
Not a more reliable car. That comes second. In everyone eyes they have to be a better race car.
So no excuses. Mclaren has a lot of things to prove this year.
I do believe they will come on top of all midfield teams at the end, but that's irrelevant.

I disagree. While it’s true that Mclaren has to prove that it has a quicker car than STR-H, toward the end of last year they already had a midfield car that was notoriously unreliable. So having a car with the same pace but that can finish a race is already a gain that justifies the switch (Bahrain was McLaren’s first consecutive race where both cars finished since 2014)

[Big Tea]

I'm sure that had you offered Mclaren 22 points on Friday they would have taken them with a smile. Not a bad days work even if it is not up to what we remember as Mclaren standards.

[Bisonas]

I disagree. While it’s true that Mclaren has to prove that it has a quicker car than STR-H, toward the end of last year they already had a midfield car that was notoriously unreliable. So having a car with the same pace but that can finish a race is already a gain that justifies the switch (Bahrain was McLaren’s first consecutive race where both cars finished since 2014)

I don't think Honda will have that same level of unreliability as last year.
So we are talking about this year performances. I didn't say anything about why Mclaren make the switch. That is history all ready. Its done. I can't blame them for doing it as i coudn't have blamed them if they didn't do it. I am a Honda fan also. I respect the history and legacy of both brands. They had their insights and took a decision.
I only speak about things that are gonna happen and things that are gonna have to be proved this year.
And my Mclaren fan side of things, doesn't have the excuses repertoire it had last year.
I will be a lot more harsh on them this year as a fan.

[johnny vee]

Thank you Fulcrum

[johnny vee]

I disagree. While it’s true that Mclaren has to prove that it has a quicker car than STR-H, toward the end of last year they already had a midfield car that was notoriously unreliable. So having a car with the same pace but that can finish a race is already a gain that justifies the switch (Bahrain was McLaren’s first consecutive race where both cars finished since 2014)

I don't think Honda will have that same level of unreliability as last year.
So we are talking about this year performances. I didn't say anything about why Mclaren make the switch. That is history all ready. Its done. I can't blame them for doing it as i coudn't have blamed them if they didn't do it. I am a Honda fan also. I respect the history and legacy of both brands. They had their insights and took a decision.
I only speak about things that are gonna happen and things that are gonna have to be proved this year.
And my Mclaren fan side of things, doesn't have the excuses repertoire it had last year.
I will be a lot more harsh on them this year as a fan.

Nice post man. I agree fully!

[carisi2k]

Actually towards the end of 2017, Mclaren had a reliable, underpowered car with only 888hp vs the 920 of Renault and the 950+ of Ferrari and Mercedes. Vandoorne didn't have a dnf in the last 5 or 6 races. Renault on the other hand had that significant failure in mexico and Daniel Ricciardo DNF'd 4 times late in the season which cost him fourth in the championship. Alonso also failed to finish in races at the end of the year because he ran out of fuel trying to keep up with cars the mcl32 wasn't really capable of keeping up with although some other excuse was given as to why he didn't finish.

Mclaren have been extremely lucky in these first 2 races rather then fast. Haas pit stop errors, a vsc, max crashing into lewis, Riccardo's battery RIPing and Kimi running over a mechanic. If these don't happen then Mclaren don't have more points then Red Bull and 3rd place in the championship but are probably sixth instead.

I will add that I think the MCL33 is better then the MCL32 but that the Renault is just a pathetic excuse of an engine that has the same power as last year with just a bit better fuel economy and packaging. It is already proving unreliable in the red bull which is where mclaren want to be. If Mclaren can somehow manage to get to Red Bull level of performance they will probably end up having similar reliability issues.

[radosav]

stoffel made eleven overtakes with worse mclaren, in a race where they had traction problems and other difficulties. Not so bad if take it all into account.

We could be really bad and say not many others were behind 11 other cars though

stoff made bad start and was last after first corner.during honda era that was hard to handle

[PinkFloydPulse]

I will add that I think the MCL33 is better then the MCL32 but that the Renault is just a pathetic excuse of an engine that has the same power as last year with just a bit better fuel economy and packaging. It is already proving unreliable in the red bull which is where mclaren want to be. If Mclaren can somehow manage to get to Red Bull level of performance they will probably end up having similar reliability issues.

you do realise that renault PU is not running on full power in that car, right?

[dren]

Mclaren has stated in the past that it makes a great chassis. Mclaren's benchmark are the other two Renault powered teams: Red Bull and Renault. Right now, they are close to Renault, but still a long distance from Red Bull.

As far as the first two races go, points are points. They took advantage of DNFs. You have to get them when you can.

[GhostF1]

Actually towards the end of 2017, Mclaren had a reliable, underpowered car with only 888hp vs the 920 of Renault and the 950+ of Ferrari and Mercedes. Vandoorne didn't have a dnf in the last 5 or 6 races. Renault on the other hand had that significant failure in mexico and Daniel Ricciardo DNF'd 4 times late in the season which cost him fourth in the championship. Alonso also failed to finish in races at the end of the year because he ran out of fuel trying to keep up with cars the mcl32 wasn't really capable of keeping up with although some other excuse was given as to why he didn't finish.

Mclaren have been extremely lucky in these first 2 races rather then fast. Haas pit stop errors, a vsc, max crashing into lewis, Riccardo's battery RIPing and Kimi running over a mechanic. If these don't happen then Mclaren don't have more points then Red Bull and 3rd place in the championship but are probably sixth instead.

I will add that I think the MCL33 is better then the MCL32 but that the Renault is just a pathetic excuse of an engine that has the same power as last year with just a bit better fuel economy and packaging. It is already proving unreliable in the red bull which is where mclaren want to be. If Mclaren can somehow manage to get to Red Bull level of performance they will probably end up having similar reliability issues.

While I agree that people are too keen to dismiss Honda's improvement at the end of last year and that it's also true McLarens current position this year is down to a lot of luck from others misfortune. I'd suggest it's a bit of a reach to call the Renault a pathetic excuse of an engine.
While I don't have the confidence in Renault to ever match Mercedes or Ferrari straight up this era, it's still a relatively decent unit.

Their qualifying pace was a little frightening though. TR gained a lot of speed with that update abd McLaren were a second adrift and pretty much 2 seconds adrift of Ricciardo. Hopefully this is rectified ASAP. A better qualifying position will allow them to take advantage of their good race pace. Very excited to see China and the pace of McLaren and STR-H as Bahrain has them equal on competitiveness.

[fellowhoodlums]

Mclaren has stated in the past that it makes a great chassis. Mclaren's benchmark are the other two Renault powered teams: Red Bull and Renault. Right now, they are close to Renault, but still a long distance from Red Bull.

As far as the first two races go, points are points. They took advantage of DNFs. You have to get them when you can.

Completely agree. Only thing i will say is that Renault had an awful car last year and suddenly they are on a par with McLaren. Not good enough from McLaren, they've not taken a step forward with the chassis at all. Yeah yeah....engine packaging/concept change etc....that was ok for Melbourne.

Spain will be interesting, everyone brings Chassis/Aero updates, McLaren have to step out of the midfield and move to close in on RBR at this point. McLaren are a great team...time to get back up there.

[ivanlesk]

Actually towards the end of 2017, Mclaren had a reliable, underpowered car with only 888hp vs the 920 of Renault and the 950+ of Ferrari and Mercedes. Vandoorne didn't have a dnf in the last 5 or 6 races. Renault on the other hand had that significant failure in mexico and Daniel Ricciardo DNF'd 4 times late in the season which cost him fourth in the championship. Alonso also failed to finish in races at the end of the year because he ran out of fuel trying to keep up with cars the mcl32 wasn't really capable of keeping up with although some other excuse was given as to why he didn't finish.

Mclaren have been extremely lucky in these first 2 races rather then fast. Haas pit stop errors, a vsc, max crashing into lewis, Riccardo's battery RIPing and Kimi running over a mechanic. If these don't happen then Mclaren don't have more points then Red Bull and 3rd place in the championship but are probably sixth instead.

I will add that I think the MCL33 is better then the MCL32 but that the Renault is just a pathetic excuse of an engine that has the same power as last year with just a bit better fuel economy and packaging. It is already proving unreliable in the red bull which is where mclaren want to be. If Mclaren can somehow manage to get to Red Bull level of performance they will probably end up having similar reliability issues.

Care to explain?

[Nuvolari]

Only thing i will say is that Renault had an awful car last year and suddenly they are on a par with McLaren. Not good enough from McLaren, they've not taken a step forward with the chassis at all. Yeah yeah....engine packaging/concept change etc....that was ok for Melbourne.

They have improved a lot, but it was such a poor baseline that they needed a bigger improvement to be qualifying closer to the top three teams.

Best lap in qualifying:

1:32.054 (2017) vs 1:30.212 (2018). Delta -1.842s

Best lap in race:

2017 - 1:35.595 (lap 47) vs 2018 - 1:34.168 (lap 47). Delta -1.427s

The delta between fastest lap and the qualifying lap (+3.956s) just seems unusually small in 2018 compared to other teams? Suggests the car had more pace in it in qualifying for some reason the team couldn't unlock. I think Alonso mentioned the reasons for this in one of his interviews. Also last year McLaren often had better qualifying pace and ended up going backwards in the race, perhaps the Honda has a better qualifying mode.

e.g. TR's fastest lap vs qualifying 2018

1:34.863 (lap 46) vs 1:29.329. Delta +5.534s

(I know Hartley set a faster lap by a couple of tenths, but trying to see a more comparable tyre age with Alonso here (& that lap was set immediately after a pitstop, however, the point still stands with Hartley's lap)

Edit: For comparison, last year's fastest lap by a TR: 1:34.985 (lap 45).