Mclaren Honda 2015

[kooleracer]

Gilles Simon is working with Honda, like Mario Illien and Andy Cowell well respected engineer. Thats why i find it even more shocking that Honda has dropped the ball. I really thought Honda would be the closest rival to Mercedes engine.

[Mesteño]

Honda hasn't even achieved to build a reliable engine

That's not the appropriate sequence of achievements, or at least the competitive one under these rules.

[Facts Only]

This is what happens when Ron bans engineers from having a brew at their desk, with most engineers needing 10-20 mugs a day that's about 3 hours each spent in the coffee room per day!

While the above is tongue in cheek, the bit about Mclaren engineers not being allowed drinks at their desks is true (or at least was until recently), perhaps if you treat your engineers like idiots the prophecy might be fulfilled and they act like idiots.

I know many a good engineer who won't go near Mclaren because of the way they treat their staff.

[McG]

How far off are McLaren's Australia 2015 qualifying times compared to Mercedes last year?

[ChrisM40]

This is what happens when Ron bans engineers from having a brew at their desk, with most engineers needing 10-20 mugs a day that's about 3 hours each spent in the coffee room per day!

While the above is tongue in cheek, the bit about Mclaren engineers not being allowed drinks at their desks is true (or at least was until recently), perhaps if you treat your engineers like idiots the prophecy might be fulfilled and they act like idiots.

I know many a good engineer who won't go near Mclaren because of the way they treat their staff.

Assuming this is true then it confirms my suspicion that McLaren is suffocatingly corporate. Its not a racing team any more, its a business, an office based business. Its all CPDs, training and HR and everything has a documented procedure which must be adhered to. There is no joy, no room for eclectic talent, no room for flexibility. I remember joking before that the engineers had to clock in at the tracks. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a monthly review of overtime claims, with the view to reducing it.

While that works in a commercial environment, it doesn't work in a time limited competitive research environment, which a racing team is.

[diffuser]

I actually start to wonder if Alonso was "extending" his medical condition to avoid the humiliation he surely knew was coming?

Easy now.... I bet ALO would have taken her into Q2 or crashed trying to pull her into it.

[diffuser]

What's interesting is that nobody from Honda or McLaren are saying the PU is fundamentally wrong. I think they must have seen that the raw performance is good in a dyno back at the Sakura factory although maybe only briefly. The only problem now is optimizing the PU for the car. When to harvest, when to discharge, rate of harvest, rate of discharge etc.. These can only be solved with running time and reliability.

To be fair, they've done exactly what they said and what many in this forum and many F1 pundits have said. Design a car/PU that's aggressive and use reliability upgrades throughout the season to make the engine more reliable. I think everyone has figured out by now that the only way to beat the Mercedes PU is by the shear potential of their own PU in the first place.

What's frustrating is that now that they have 2 cars to do testing with they suddenly go into conservative mode. Dennis and Arai both saying that they shouldn't burn their PU's in the first few races but their at the back of the field now, they can't go back anymore even if they burn 10 PU's (can they?). They should at least test the limits of the PU with one their cars, have one car go round track with limited power to gather data and the other go 100% to see if the engine will break, catch fire or any other reliability issues that they may have.

As for McLaren, Alonso and JB fans, pls be more frustrated and be more vocal about your disappointments so that Dennis can actually feel the pressure. It used to be that Whitmarsh was answerable to Dennis. But since Dennis is chairman who is he answerable too.

I think Ron has his Money where his mouth is. He doesn't need more incentive.

[yener]

this is just ridiculous...

So McLaren is not racing for any point's but they are using the Australian GP as a test weekend? They don't know how the PU will response with higher temperatures. Really? What will hapen in Abu Dhabi? Malasya? Another test session?

[Mciracer]

....

[George-Jung]

If Magnussen's engine blows this race.. will that count for Alonso..?
Or when Alonso comes back, he still has 4 engines?

[radosav]

If Magnussen's engine blows this race.. will that count for Alonso..?
Or when Alonso comes back, he still has 4 engines?

Kevin is using PU14, so it's Alonso's engine !

[langwadt]

If Magnussen's engine blows this race.. will that count for Alonso..?
Or when Alonso comes back, he still has 4 engines?

it doesn't matter who drives, only four engines

as far as allocation of engines gearboxes etc. a replacement driver continues where where the previous driver stopped

[podpi]

What's frustrating is that now that they have 2 cars to do testing with they suddenly go into conservative mode. Dennis and Arai both saying that they shouldn't burn their PU's in the first few races but their at the back of the field now, they can't go back anymore even if they burn 10 PU's (can they?). They should at least test the limits of the PU with one their cars, have one car go round track with limited power to gather data and the other go 100% to see if the engine will break, catch fire or any other reliability issues that they may have..

There will still be indicators of where problems reside even when running conservatively. The cars are covered in sensors. It's not like the old days where you had to break a part, return car to mechanics for a physical to find a problem.

For example, heating seems to be one of the major issues (Arai interview). Evidence of where, why and how much the car is overheating will be apparent from an increase in temperature readings in the cooling systems (and heat sensitive components) correlated with what the PU and car is doing. This temp increase might not cause damage because of the conservative settings, but will provide insight into why heat problems cause destruction when running at max settings and how they can be resolved.

However, if something blows up prematurely, you're going to lose tons of data points and physically damage the components not necessarily causing the increase in temperature.

[Moose]

this is just ridiculous...

So McLaren is not racing for any point's but they are using the Australian GP as a test weekend? They don't know how the PU will response with higher temperatures. Really? What will hapen in Abu Dhabi? Malasya? Another test session?

It's very well known exactly what happened to them

[efuloni]

Just came to tell you that this was the first time in all history of the team that McLaren got the two last positions in quali. 1976, Italy, was the worst until now. That day they started in 25 and 26, but there were 27 cars.