2016 McLaren F1 Team - Honda

[godlameroso]

Who do you guys think will replace Fernando Alonso if he retires after 2017 ? Jenson Button won't be driving for Mclaren by the end of this year and Stoffel Vandoorne will be replacing Jenson.

Mclaren have a very high standard for young drivers program and Stoffel have exceeded the standard. I don't thing Nyck de Vries will be replacing Fernando. He didn't do well in GP3 series. Same goes to Nobuharu Matsushita (Honda young driver).

Why would McLaren replace a driver who is keeping Alonso honest with a driver who is currently 9th in the 3rd tier formula he is currently racing in?

http://superformula.net/sf/en/race/2016/standings/

You fail to mention that the top 10 are separated by 7 points and there's 3 rounds left. Not to mention you can potentially earn 11 points in a race event. So Vandoorne is7 points down on the leader, if he wins one race he can take the lead.

And he's doing better than his team mate?

[fellowhoodlums]

Some clear info to settle the chassis/engine arguments

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... q3-chances

To summarise......it's the engine

[mrluke]

If Mclarens problem was fuel saving then they would be slow at the start of the race (carrying more fuel than rivals) and fast at the end of the race (no more weight penalty). I am not convinced we have seen this.

Personally if I was Mclaren and I knew that we had an under performing power unit, I would be targeting the low power/high downforce tracks as my opportunity to get a really good result rather than ignoring these tracks and focusing on the ones that I will do really badly at.

Glad to see the forum coming around to "maybe it isn't all Honda's fault."

I cant wait to see how Mclaren get on at Monza, im guessing people will be surprised by their good performance

If you need to fuel save. you'll go parts of the race where you race normally(when defending or of if you see an opportunity to pass) then you'll go into sections where you'll lift and coast instead of braking. Races tend to be in tighter confines at the beginning of the race so you have to defend more or attempt to pass more. This leaves a driver with a greater percentage of fuel saving later in the race.

So you are saying that Mclaren dont take any extra fuel into the race vs the other teams, its just that their management of it is worse? They either need extra fuel or they dont, you cant have it both ways.

[PhillipM]

No, they take similar fuel and do more fuel saving lift-and-coast type laps later on in the GP.

[diffuser]

I agree with PhillipM in that sometimes all teams carry 100kg of fuel at the start. We don't know if that happens all the time. I'd suspect not but I don't remember anyone every saying that they didn't start the race with 100KG. They tend to speak in terms of more or less fuel limited.


McLaren Honda have to burn more fuel to match the lap times of the other teams. So they can keep up with some of the other cars but if they do they'll run out of fuel. To make it to the end of the race they start to fuel save by using lift and coast. The more fuel they have to save, the longer (earlier) and more often they have to lift(more Corners). Lift and coast Saves them fuel but also costs lap time.

[diffuser]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

[bauc]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

Classic Alonso, always putting pressure to the team to deliver more performance

[BeardedAce]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

I wonder if the Honda PU is still "A Long Way" behind the others...it is still weak but is it really that far behind?
Hope it's not Ron's another ploy to embarrass Honda to get more out of them...GP2 engine! GP2!!!

[CjC]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

Classic Alonso, always putting pressure to the team to deliver more performance

Yea I know
It's like Alonso doesn't have any data to back up his point

[Sayeman]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

Classic Alonso, always putting pressure to the team to deliver more performance

Yea I know
It's like Alonso doesn't have any data to back up his point

He has made many ridiculous claims in the last 2 years....Don't think he had the data to back it up.

[zeph]

From all I have read I get the impression that fuel consumption is the main issue.

They can easily make as much power as Mercedes, but not within the fuel limitations.

That may be why Alonso ocassionally gets so frustrated, he feels the power is there and wants to drive the socks off that thing, only to be told that he won't make it to the finish if he doesn't dial it down.

[Alonso Fan]

From all I have read I get the impression that fuel consumption is the main issue.

They can easily make as much power as Mercedes, but not within the fuel limitations.

That may be why Alonso ocassionally gets so frustrated, he feels the power is there and wants to drive the socks off that thing, only to be told that he won't make it to the finish if he doesn't dial it down.

Agreed, and adding to that, sometimes he bangs in a decent lap.

Although that doesn't explain their qualy deficit as they can use as much fuel as they want. I think the power deficit really shows most in quali because of the others ability to turn up their engine more than Honda

[DiogoBrand]

Two things I find intriguing:
1 - There's all that talk about Honda's PU being very powerful when not having to fuel save, but losing on consumption, yet they usually qualify well down the top 10, and a lot of times finish the race better than they qualified.
2 - Even being the ones with the least power on the grid, McLaren seems to run some of the biggest wings. Goes right agains the theory that they have a great chassis and lack power.

I'm not saying they don't lack power or that consumption isn't an issue. But those facts kind of go against these theories.

[Xero]

Two things I find intriguing:
1 - There's all that talk about Honda's PU being very powerful when not having to fuel save, but losing on consumption, yet they usually qualify well down the top 10, and a lot of times finish the race better than they qualified.
2 - Even being the ones with the least power on the grid, McLaren seems to run some of the biggest wings. Goes right agains the theory that they have a great chassis and lack power.

I'm not saying they don't lack power or that consumption isn't an issue. But those facts kind of go against these theories.

You could also argue they are allowed to run more wing because they have more efficient aero, hence why they are always one of the quickest through the twisty bits. Could look at it from a number of views, it's all just educated guesses (some more educated than others!) but we really don't know. If the drivers come out and say the chassis is good and the engine lacking, I know who I'm believing.

[Andres125sx]

@TechMan from the link fellowhoodloom put out.

Despite McLaren's obvious progress at power-dependent circuits Spa and Monza, Alonso still feels Honda needs to make big gains for 2017.

"We have a very different winter coming, where the regulation changes will make a massive difference," he said.

"We are happy and confident with the chassis side, we can do a good job and close the gap to Mercedes.

"The engine side is a question mark.

"We are still a long way behind the top engines so we need to make a bigger step over the winter."

Classic Alonso, always putting pressure to the team to deliver more performance

I wonder if you (and people in general) say this as something negative or not

Seriously, a contract is a contract for both the team and driver. If the driver does not perform, he´s fired. Any reason if it´s the team who does not perform as expected driver should be happy and quiet?

This is F1, top level motorsport. If you don´t perform as expected, you´re criticized, and this applies to drivers, but also to everyone in the paddock.... and factories