2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[techman]

next year is a rebuilding year. i cannot see them at the top of the midfield. renault would be even stronger. force india might struggle , haas will be competitive. and not knowing the diver line up for mclaren. its pretty much a building year.

[Ground Effect]

Joe Saward is suggesting Carlos Sainz is likely to end up at Mclaren.

[Edax]

Mclaren aint gonna get anywhere near the top 3 team till 2020. People are forgetting that this year is a one off in terms of budget, the Qataris have reluctantly backed the team with their cash and Zak was supposed to get sponsorship money not a wearable brand that no one knows of. Next year they will have for the first time in their history budget constraints and thats the chess move here. Key will give them a car to get to tip of midfield with the budget thats all. Dont think anyone is saying Key will now turn this team to top teir. Hell no. Just midfield top.

You have a source for that? It's the first I've reaf that Mclaren's backers are suddenly reducing their budget. Don't forget, these numbers are peanuts to them....

Can’t find the source, but I heard the same. It is not so much that he reduces the budget, it was a one time financial injection which runs out.

As for peanuts. The total turnover of the mclaren group is 1 billion (2017). The total budget for their F1 team is estimated at 250 million (2018) of which 90 million is coming directly from FOM

I am no accountant, but to me it seems that the Mclaren group is not able to sustain backing F1 without considerable outside financial input. Especially since the parent company now has to content with brexit and the US trade restrictions.

I cannot imagine that they are not hurting at the moment, having lost a chunk of FOM money and the honda money.

[BrunoH]

jesus over 2 sec off the pace in a track like this... they are worst than they were with Honda.. unbelivable, im very disapointed with the team.

They really need to shift all focus to 2019 development. otherwise they will stay in the same place come next year!

[OzanA]

This car is absolute sh*t.It's even no sense updating.Full focus 2019

[taperoo2k]

This car is absolute sh*t.It's even no sense updating.Full focus 2019

They need to figure out what's wrong the current car, what caused the issues and fix them before
they can focus all efforts on the 2019 car. I guess on the plus side, the simplified front wings for 2019 might help McLaren focus on areas that need attention.

James Key looks like a good move, if he can whip the design team into shape, then it might not take
as long to get the team back on track. McLaren still has a few years of struggles ahead and maybe a restricted budget is what the team needs. Too much money and poor management is likely the main reason for McLaren ending up in it's current state.

As for Stoffel ? I guess all McLaren can do at this point is try a new Chassis to see if that resolves the problems.

[McMika98]

Stoffel is running out of excuses and is the new Palmer sadly.

As for the team finances there are plenty of articles on the net and in this forum, cant be asked to trawl through it. Search on google for financial year end report for 2017 and they made a loss (only team to be in red of all teams) and that was with millions from Honda and other sponsors. This year Honda money is gone and they are paying them and Renault and dont have a major sponsor. Next year budget will be peanuts and a rude awakening for the team thats why Key is the key.

[PhillipM]

Stoffel has a different chassis, he's still slow. However, he was still testing parts in FP3, so see where he ends up after qualifying. Not that I'm hopeful of suddenly matching alonso, I don't think he's good enough personally,

[PlatinumZealot]

Hes a broken man Stoffel. Broken by the Alonso centricity.

[techman]

stoeffel was doing good in his rookie year, in fact even leading alonso at one point. i believe he misses the honda smooth drivability. renault drivability isnt smooth according to TR drivers.

[godlameroso]

If you are watching F2 right now you'd know Norris is the real deal.

[diffuser]

If you can't compete with best or adapt to different car traits...your just not cut out for it. Simple as that.

Put in your heads, everytime you open your mouth to make an excuse...your just saying he isn't good enough.

Cause if he was good enough ....he wouldn't need no excuse.

[Ground Effect]

stoeffel was doing good in his rookie year, in fact even leading alonso at one point. i believe he misses the honda smooth drivability. renault drivability isnt smooth according to TR drivers.

That's a bit narrow sighted, do you know how many races Fernando DNF'd while in the points, with one reliability issue or the other? Last year it was a bit of a lottery as to who would finish the race. The qualifying result last year was 17-3 in Fernando's favour, agreed the margins were smaller. 2 out of the 3 times he out qualified, Fernando was due grid penalties. Only in Malaysia did he out and out beat him over the weekend. The alleged superior drivability of the Honda over Renault should affect Fernando as well. I'm a big Stoffel fan, and I believe in his talent, but disagree with your assessment.

Edit: Before you think I'm bashing Honda on the reliability point, some of the reliability retirements were from the chassis side, some from the engine.

[godlameroso]

It's not expected to rain tomorrow, but there's always a chance, it's going to be who can stretch the soft and medium tires because it's going to be quite hot, it's interesting that everyone is going to have free choice over tires tomorrow.

[McMika98]

You're starting to sound like techman, repeating the same things over and over. The only team to be in red, yeah that's why Force India is doing such a great job right now.

Facts are facts. Mclaren were the only team to make a loss last year, every team even Sauber before they got Alfa Romeo broke even. This year they have shareholder backing but the year end financial report will be an interesting reading. I guess you didnt study accounts.
Force India is a different matter, they didn't have money to start the season and begged for early payments.miracle how they are still here.