2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[mclaren111]

Bad news for McLaren: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/over ... n-1032355/

Aero changes for next year, and stronger DRS approved by F1 chiefs. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso were against it. But Mercedes, Williams, Force India and Sauber supported it, hence it passed. (Only needed support from 4 teams apparently)

With these regulation changes, the Renault teams will be at the big disadvantage with the engine deficit to Mercedes. Unbelievable. I hope Ferrari can veto it.

Why is this ? Please be so kind as to explain. Thx

[nirvaand]

Bad news for McLaren: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/over ... n-1032355/

Aero changes for next year, and stronger DRS approved by F1 chiefs. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso were against it. But Mercedes, Williams, Force India and Sauber supported it, hence it passed. (Only needed support from 4 teams apparently)

With these regulation changes, the Renault teams will be at the big disadvantage with the engine deficit to Mercedes. Unbelievable. I hope Ferrari can veto it.

Why is this ? Please be so kind as to explain. Thx

It was just an instant reaction to the news, without much judgement. I have edited my post since. Cheers!

[dr_cooke]

Interesting thread both on why Alonso considered Baku'18 probably his best race ever and on what to expect from the new update (literally: "very, very good")

https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990886630767644672

[media]https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990886630767644672[/media]

[rogazilla]

Alonso's driving ability should be no dispute and this season demonstrated what he can do. I think if you put him in a Renault, Haas, Sauber, FI, Williams and STR, he will probably put those car a few spots above what the other drivers can achieve. He is hauling in major points race after race this season with all kind of obstacle.

[radosav]

Interesting thread both on why Alonso considered Baku'18 probably his best race ever and on what to expect from the new update (literally: "very, very good")

https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990886630767644672

https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990886630767644672

I ve checked this guy and it seems he is really working for McLaren

[PhillipM]

I think a lot of the performance was down to Mclaren (and Renault too), getting a handle on the tyres - they had no issues switching them on quickly in the race unlike the front runners, which is surprising given Alonso must have lot quite a lot of downforce and rear tyre loading.

[godlameroso]

I hope this works out for McLaren, I really do. Most teams will gain a few tenths here and there, but McLaren has a chance to make a bigger gain. If they pick up a second, very unlikely, they'll certainly be in the mix. They might still qualify poorly but they'll have the pace to fight up front. But hey, anything is possible, Renault made a 1.2 second gain with one of their updates, and FI made a big gain in season as well.

McLaren has to be at least as good as FI or Renault when it comes to making a car, so it's not impossible for them to have a nice step forward, but my fear is that it will be a modest improvement and it won't be until French GP that we see them really get the new package dialed in.

When everything is perfect they're on average 1.1 or 1.2 seconds a lap slower than the top runners, getting within .3 would be enough for Alonso to be in the mix(and snatch podiums). Granted they'd still be qualifying at the middle to bottom of the Q3 pile.

[RonDennis]

We all know why. I don't even know why people are comparing the results of the beginning of last year. You should compare the performance from the last few races, because that's the only good comparison if you want to see if the switch was worth it.

it still wouldnt have mattered because they would still be the only team using the honda, and any lack of top speeds would be put down to the honda not having enough power. regardless of what they should have done in a perfect world, the only way to move forward, in reality, was to part ways with honda. and if they started this season with the honda, i still have a hard time believing that they would have had the race results theyve had so far. maybe they would have, but i think that the relationship had been too tainted to move forward. hindsight is 20/20, but mclaren need to concentrate on the future. one day the rest of the world will.

We definetly should compare the start of 2017 season and this season. But on the other hand it is no problem at all taking last 4 races of the last year. Yes, they are far away in terms of qualifying, but they scored 7 points in that last 4 races and they have scored 36 so far with basically stock car. Points matter at the end of the day. If they would start every race dead last this year and score more points than they did last year, it would still mean they are better.
4 races, triple double points finishes and only one finish of Vandoorne out of top 10 so far, no retirements left and a brilliant recover of a car which was 2-wheeling into the pits... In this 4 races we have also seen that teams are aparently very track specific as well. Different teams shining on different tracks. 4 races and they have allready surpassed their 2017 tally of points and the progress is deemed as a "failure"...

Being close to Red Bull would have meant more for me than those points they scored so far. The gap is gigantic and that is simply a failure. I never expected them to beat Red Bull, but with the facilities, staff and budget McLaren still has, they should have been the 4th fastest team.

[CjC]

Bad news for McLaren: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/over ... n-1032355/

Aero changes for next year, and stronger DRS approved by F1 chiefs. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso were against it. But Mercedes, Williams, Force India and Sauber supported it, hence it passed. (Only needed support from 4 teams apparently)

With these regulation changes, the Renault teams will be at the big disadvantage with the engine deficit to Mercedes. Unbelievable. I hope Ferrari can veto it.

Why is this ? Please be so kind as to explain. Thx

In the interests of Mclaren I think it's bad news but not the Renault teams as a whole.

EB said that the car in Spain will follow a new philosophy I believe, so they must feel as though they have found a long path of development- including a new nose which will surely entail a new front wing, barge board package eventually and so on....
These new rules are changing the front wings, break ducts and DRS, so basically I feel Mclaren didn't want to see all of their efforts into the new philosophy only produce 5 months of developments rather than a gain in lap time till the end of 2020.

[proteus]

it still wouldnt have mattered because they would still be the only team using the honda, and any lack of top speeds would be put down to the honda not having enough power. regardless of what they should have done in a perfect world, the only way to move forward, in reality, was to part ways with honda. and if they started this season with the honda, i still have a hard time believing that they would have had the race results theyve had so far. maybe they would have, but i think that the relationship had been too tainted to move forward. hindsight is 20/20, but mclaren need to concentrate on the future. one day the rest of the world will.

We definetly should compare the start of 2017 season and this season. But on the other hand it is no problem at all taking last 4 races of the last year. Yes, they are far away in terms of qualifying, but they scored 7 points in that last 4 races and they have scored 36 so far with basically stock car. Points matter at the end of the day. If they would start every race dead last this year and score more points than they did last year, it would still mean they are better.
4 races, triple double points finishes and only one finish of Vandoorne out of top 10 so far, no retirements left and a brilliant recover of a car which was 2-wheeling into the pits... In this 4 races we have also seen that teams are aparently very track specific as well. Different teams shining on different tracks. 4 races and they have allready surpassed their 2017 tally of points and the progress is deemed as a "failure"...

Being close to Red Bull would have meant more for me than those points they scored so far. The gap is gigantic and that is simply a failure. I never expected them to beat Red Bull, but with the facilities, staff and budget McLaren still has, they should have been the 4th fastest team.

In the end the points tally determines where the team stands. So far they are still 4th.

[Coefficient]

It seems to me that having simply fitted a Renault in what is basically a 2018 compliant MCL32 and it performing significantly better than last year suggests the chassis was ok last year to me. I think the team will just keep bringing performance to the car now they are on top of engine installation. I also think McLaren are getting an unfair beating when you consider they are scoring every race and currently hold a reasonable position in the WCC. Sacking Tim Goss may have been a bit of a knee jerk reaction although admittedly he did better work under Paddy Lowe. Off to Williams perhaps? I think they will solidify their 4th place in WCC as the year goes by and maybe get a cheeky podium to boot.

[PhillipM]

It sounds like Tim Goss may have gone for more reasons than the performance though...

[skwdenyer]

It sounds like Tim Goss may have gone for more reasons than the performance though...

If you're talking about the story from Joe Saward about the person the flight, I think that has been stated not to relate to TG. Or are there other potential reasons I've missed?

[radosav]

This guy is engineer at McLaren.
https://blogs.20minutos.es/formula-1-al ... an-roldan/

[RonDennis]

[media]https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990886630767644672[/media]

Some info on the updates.

Q: Ivan. What can we expect from Barcelona? Please, as sincerely as possible. Do not believe us false illusions. Is what's coming good?

A: Very very good. But in the end everything will depend on how much the rivals have also improved. Because they will not have remained idle.

https://twitter.com/ivanlda/status/990898157902008321