[ 2020 ] Mclaren F1 Team - Renault

[Jolle]

Notice how it says "yet". This is very smart in my opinion. Not ideal, but understandable.

The situation right now is very unpredictable. Nobody knows what might happen later. Things may return back to normal, or the long lasting consequences of the pandemic may turn out to be much more "devastating" for the world. There's also the chance of covid having a second wave of infections. It probably won't happen, but it still needs to be considered, along with all the other negative effects.

It would be unwise for McLaren to use a big portion of their newly acquired finances for projects that do nearly nothing to help the business recover. Yeah sure, if the situation gets better, then the automotive business will start selling cars to make some money. But what happens if the situation gets worse and they spend a good deal of the money they currently have to advance the Wind Tunnel project?

They will be stuck on a nasty situation. As I said the wind tunnel does not generate income for the business to survive. It will only bring money implicitly if it helps the Formula 1 team to finish higher up in the standings (hence more bonus money from FIA). But until that time it's completely useless for the business.

It is wise to wait and judge the situation before committing borrowed money on big projects that do not guarantee a return of investment in the short term view. They will only start doing that when they are absolutely sure that the business is safe in terms of finances for the foreseeable future.

The loan was to pay for short term creditors (so, basically, bills that needed to be paid). They still need around 200 million pounds within the next month to refinance another loan.

They, at this point, simply don’t have the credit to do large investments.

These large refinancing actions are something quite common, so nothing really to be worried about, until of course, the company value drops below a certain point and refinancing becomes so expensive that you can’t pay it off. Like what happened to Gibson Guitars last year.

Safe-ish, but certainly not out of the woods.

Until McLaren starts fitting Robot tuners and brass zero-fret nuts on their cars I think they'll be fine

Well, actually, the way Gibson Guitars came into trouble is quite similar to why McLaren is where they are.

Gibson invested (with loans) heavy into new companies they bought, including parts of Philips electronics. This became such a pricy operation that they didn’t have the finances to make good guitars and failed to have the right innovations and slipped back in quality.

See McLaren racing as the once leading electric guitars they made and Automotive as their failed attempt to widen their market.

[SmallSoldier]

The loan was to pay for short term creditors (so, basically, bills that needed to be paid). They still need around 200 million pounds within the next month to refinance another loan.

They, at this point, simply don’t have the credit to do large investments.

These large refinancing actions are something quite common, so nothing really to be worried about, until of course, the company value drops below a certain point and refinancing becomes so expensive that you can’t pay it off. Like what happened to Gibson Guitars last year.

Safe-ish, but certainly not out of the woods.

Until McLaren starts fitting Robot tuners and brass zero-fret nuts on their cars I think they'll be fine

Well, actually, the way Gibson Guitars came into trouble is quite similar to why McLaren is where they are.

Gibson invested (with loans) heavy into new companies they bought, including parts of Philips electronics. This became such a pricy operation that they didn’t have the finances to make good guitars and failed to have the right innovations and slipped back in quality.

See McLaren racing as the once leading electric guitars they made and Automotive as their failed attempt to widen their market.

Mclaren aren’t where they are today because their business model is wrong or because they’ve made the wrong decisions in regards to how they were growing their automotive division.

Mclaren are suffering from this Pandemic like everyone else, a negative situation that is magnified for companies that not only operate in niche markets, but expensive / luxury ones at the same time... The fact that they are delaying the construction of Wind Tunnel is understandable, with the uncertaintity in regards to when economies will reopen and the actual impact of Covid, saving cash is paramount.


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[mclaren111]

"Cabins" instead of Motorhomes...

[90feet]

https://the-race.com/formula-1/mclaren- ... ing-boost/

McLaren won’t resume big projects yet (wind tunnel ect...) despite funding boost
Understandable but this might mean Mclaren ability to fight with the big 3 will still be far away even in 2-3 years

Notice how it says "yet". This is very smart in my opinion. Not ideal, but understandable.

The situation right now is very unpredictable. Nobody knows what might happen later. Things may return back to normal, or the long lasting consequences of the pandemic may turn out to be much more "devastating" for the world. There's also the chance of covid having a second wave of infections. It probably won't happen, but it still needs to be considered, along with all the other negative effects.

It would be unwise for McLaren to use a big portion of their newly acquired finances for projects that do nearly nothing to help the business recover. Yeah sure, if the situation gets better, then the automotive business will start selling cars to make some money. But what happens if the situation gets worse and they spend a good deal of the money they currently have to advance the Wind Tunnel project?

They will be stuck on a nasty situation. As I said the wind tunnel does not generate income for the business to survive. It will only bring money implicitly if it helps the Formula 1 team to finish higher up in the standings (hence more bonus money from FIA). But until that time it's completely useless for the business.

It is wise to wait and judge the situation before committing borrowed money on big projects that do not guarantee a return of investment in the short term view. They will only start doing that when they are absolutely sure that the business is safe in terms of finances for the foreseeable future.

The way this whole discussion has been framed by the F1 media has been incredibly frustrating to follow. It is not an F1 story. It is 100% specific to McLaren Automotive and their inability to sell cars and thus generate revenue during the pandemic. Most of the F1 media (with a few exceptions) have willfully ignored this fact in favor of farming clicks by pretending McLaren are yet another struggling F1 team. This is not the case, beyond the obvious fact that if McLaren Automotive were to collapse it would potentially take the rest of the group with it.

The headline of that The Race article is, "McLaren won't resume big projects yet despite funding boost." But that "funding boost" is for McLaren Automotive. It has nothing whatsoever to do with McLaren Racing. And this is made clear if you read what Seidl says: "And even now, with not knowing exactly how the income will look like during this year, we’re still cautious there and simply have to wait until we have the green light." He's talking about them not knowing how much money the racing team will make because they don't know how many races they are going to run. That's why the project has been delayed. Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with McLaren Automotive's financial woes or the funding they received.

[Morteza]

[djos]

Updated Livery- smart

I love the rainbow band on the side-pods, it's very stylishly done, however, I don't love the version on the Halo, it just looks garish - I wish they had applied the same styling they used on the side-pod.

[genarro]

Seidl is confident of a good result in Austria. Looking back last year was a great race. https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2020 ... strian-gp/

We know that he is very cautious and inteligent when giving statemetns. I predict that wewill have a strong weekends (this one and the next)

[_cerber1]

[proteus]

Seidl is confident of a good result in Austria. Looking back last year was a great race. https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2020 ... strian-gp/

We know that he is very cautious and inteligent when giving statemetns. I predict that wewill have a strong weekends (this one and the next)

Hopefully they wont start as bad as they started last season.

[Emag]

Seidl is confident of a good result in Austria. Looking back last year was a great race. https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2020 ... strian-gp/

We know that he is very cautious and inteligent when giving statemetns. I predict that wewill have a strong weekends (this one and the next)

Hopefully they wont start as bad as they started last season.

They started great last season, what do you mean? Norris (a rookie at his first race) qualified 8th at Australia. Carlos got unlucky with Kubica and the race for both cars didn't go as planned but they showed good speed.

Then in Bahrain, Sainz was fighting (and winning at that moment) with Max Verstappen in a RedBull. And Norris came from 14th on the grid (after first lap incident) to finish 6th.

In Azerbaijan they were the quickest and were only beat by Perez (who likes that track a lot).

The only races they did not do that good were on tracks that exposed the car's weakness (The Front-End and low speed performance). Tracks like China with long corners and Spain S3 (and to an extent Monaco as well). And even at those races they were really no that bad compared to the competition.

[proteus]

Seidl is confident of a good result in Austria. Looking back last year was a great race. https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2020 ... strian-gp/

We know that he is very cautious and inteligent when giving statemetns. I predict that wewill have a strong weekends (this one and the next)

Hopefully they wont start as bad as they started last season.

They started great last season, what do you mean? Norris (a rookie at his first race) qualified 8th at Australia. Carlos got unlucky with Kubica and the race for both cars didn't go as planned but they showed good speed.

Then in Bahrain, Sainz was fighting (and winning at that moment) with Max Verstappen in a RedBull. And Norris came from 14th on the grid (after first lap incident) to finish 6th.

In Azerbaijan they were the quickest and were only beat by Perez (who likes that track a lot).

The only races they did not do that good were on tracks that exposed the car's weakness (The Front-End and low speed performance). Tracks like China with long corners and Spain S3 (and to an extent Monaco as well). And even at those races they were really no that bad compared to the competition.

After first 3 races, they had 8 points, a 50% retirement rate and were out of top 5 in constructors. This was far from a perfect start. Nobody said they werent quick, but whole development of those 3 races meant they needed to step up their game to outperform Renault and Sauber. Since this year there are much less races on the calendar, every DNF or simply a poor result might mean a massive problem for midfielders.

Just being at the wrong place at the wrong time can cost them dearly.

[cbbcisace]

Nice to see another partner. They’ve still to announce Mission as well. Zac is still smashing it on partnerships

[_cerber1]

[Ground Effect]

The general consensus is that the midfield will be very tight. Interestingly, Marko said in an interview with AMuS that he doesn’t think Alpha Tauri can get to McLaren, but hopes they can attack Renault.

[Emag]

The general consensus is that the midfield will be very tight. Interestingly, Marko said in an interview with AMuS that he doesn’t think Alpha Tauri can get to McLaren, but hopes they can attack Renault.

Marko shitting on Renault isn't something people should be surprised by now tbh. I wouldn't underestimate Renault. They showed decent speed on testing.