2018 McLaren F1 Team - Renault

[godlameroso]

I would say this car was designed by committee more than designed by Morris. Plenty of clever little details but the overall picture is a mess and things don’t really work together.

You can't say that, there's always one ego that wants his view point to take precedence. I think that the committee that McLaren used wasn't based on a meritocracy. I have no doubt the staff is capable, once the proper people are leading the development things will move in the right direction. Flippancy at the top is poison once that gets settled everything will fall into place. Ferrari made a great car because the hierarchy is unquestioned, things work by committee at the smaller departments but ultimately there's a hierarchy with minimal bureaucracy.

Part of the reason a team can't respond fast enough isn't just manufacturing capability but the bureaucracy involved in making those changes.

[adrianjordan]

Perhaps with Morris out of the way, someone within the team that we don't know of will step up and take charge of running the design team in the interim.

I have no doubt that with Mclaren, and indeed every team, there are staff we don't yet know of who are potentially the next big name...

[mclaren111]

Motorsport.com - Gary Anderson

Why Key could face an impossible task at McLaren

Can someone with access please post this article here.

Thank you.

[Ground Effect]

Motorsport.com - Gary Anderson

Why Key could face an impossible task at McLaren

Can someone with access please post this article here.

Thank you.

To be honest, I hardly bother with much of what Gary Anderson says, especially about Mclaren. He tends to have some odd bias against them. That's why I was surprised he gave the MCL33 a positive review just after the car launch.

[M840TR]

Motorsport.com - Gary Anderson

Why Key could face an impossible task at McLaren

Can someone with access please post this article here.

Thank you.

To be honest, I hardly bother with much of what Gary Anderson says, especially about Mclaren. He tends to have some odd bias against them. That's why I was surprised he gave the MCL33 a positive review just after the car launch.

The notion that looking at a car might give an accurate measure of its performance is slightly absurd, but if there were any indicators it would've been the bargeboards and sidepods which show clearly where the car's lacking.

[RonDennis]

Motorsport.com - Gary Anderson

Why Key could face an impossible task at McLaren

Can someone with access please post this article here.

Thank you.

Some quotes from the article:

My only doubt about Key, even though I like him and rate him highly, is that Toro Rosso hasn't progressed since the standout season in 2015.

That car was, if I remember correctly, second quickest through Abbey at Silverstone - behind only Mercedes - and rival teams were talking up how good it was. But, again, by the nature of the team, it's always had fast but younger and less experienced drivers, so development direction is difficult to set.

He probably forgot that Toro Rosso used a 1 year old Ferrari after that and had to switch to a completely different Renault the year after and this year they're running Honda.

Hopefully, it's the correct direction. There are probably more people working in the design, research and development department at McLaren than Toro Rosso has in its entire team.

McLaren does do a lot right, and if you can combine that with what Key does right then you will have a stronger team
The turnaround, if it can be done, will take time. When you move to a new team, it takes a while to pick up how things work. You can't just dive in there and say 'This is how it's going to be' because that would destroy any motivation that was left.

McLaren does do a lot right, and if you can combine that with what Key does right, then you'll have a stronger team. But McLaren can't stand back and wait for the day he walks through the door, which could easily be a year away depending on how negotiations go with Toro Rosso. So, in the interim, McLaren needs to push on as effectively as possible with what it has.

He has the knowledge, the ability and the drive. But the big questions are whether he will be able to adapt to the requirements of a big team; and, even more importantly, will he have the time needed to put everything in place and with the right support?

For Key, the task at McLaren will be the biggest he has ever faced, but it could be just what he needs
F1 teams are so big nowadays that it's questionable if one person, no matter how capable, can turn things around.

It needs everything to be right for Key to be successful, which means it's going to be probably the most difficult challenge of his career - and could prove to be impossible no matter what he does.

[munudeges]

John Barnard has also expressed similar sentiments. This is not just a TD job, he's got to rip out and change the culture that has built up there over decades. He's also got to stop the rest of the company thinking they can interfere and impose their working methods on the team.

[molina]

I think James Key is the big name, but the gains will come from people on the shadows...

[diffuser]

John Barnard has also expressed similar sentiments. This is not just a TD job, he's got to rip out and change the culture that has built up there over decades. He's also got to stop the rest of the company thinking they can interfere and impose their working methods on the team.

Think your mixing up his job with Browns. Pretty sure that when he walks in and they handed him the "Keys" people will fall in line. It is a bunch of Engineers after all.

[M840TR]

John Barnard has also expressed similar sentiments. This is not just a TD job, he's got to rip out and change the culture that has built up there over decades. He's also got to stop the rest of the company thinking they can interfere and impose their working methods on the team.

Think your mixing up his job with Browns. Pretty sure that when he walks in and they handed him the "Keys" people will fall in line. It is a bunch of Engineers after all.

I think what he means is he has to establish himself first, set out a certain working relationship and development direction in the team which of course takes time. They're only human at the end of the day.

[mclaren111]

As we know, It's all about teamwork. He needs to build the right teams......

Aero, chassis, production, testing etc etc etc ....

Only time will tell ....

[makecry]

Just read this on Joe's blog. Sounds like another setback?

There is a lot of chat about James Key moving to McLaren. What is clear is that Toro Rosso is not happy and intends to push hard to get the most possible compensation. It cannot stop Key moving for more than six months but there does need to be a financial settlement for that to happen. As soon as the news came out, Matt Morris quit McLaren, as he is not a Key fan, the two having worked together unharmoniously at Sauber. While Toro Rosso has a replacement for Key in Jody Egginton, McLaren doesn't have a replacement for Morris and they need someone to design a 2019 car. Key will not be there to do it, nor will Morris and so the team will probably need to find a stop-gap chief designer to tide them over.

I think unless they 'luck into' the right person, next year is not going to start well either. Just hope they can pull something out of the bag with Key.

Why? Morris created a car that is worse than Toro Rosso, which has about half the staff and resources. You want him to lead again? I'm sure McLaren thought about it.

This car is not worse than Toro Rosso. Last year's car was certainly not. Last year McLaren with the Honda turd was more or less best of rest by the end of the year, this year Toro Rosso with a significantly improved Honda is at the back of the grid more often than not, they have had what? 3 good races this year. MCL33 on other hand has been in points for all races apart from 2 .

[ALO_Power]

yes MCL32 had more downforce than MCL33.

there you go. mcl32 was running max drag downforce. thus slow on the straights. they still are the slowest in the straights. it will take some some better engineers to fix those. hopefully they do, a competitive mclaren is good for the sport

Haha sure. Whisper that to Williams as well, maybe they could had Pole Position in Monaco/Hungary with Merc engine and your max-wing idea, right? That's just wrong and unfounded and you know it. The car has less downforce because things that McLaren was relying on a lot in 2017 got removed for 2018 (monkey seats etc.)

The reason MCL33 is low on speed traps (but still close with Red Bull) is not because of drag, it's because they have less downforce and they run more wing angle to compensate for that (they told it themselves) and yes MCL32 had more downforce than MCL33.

I'm not in this discussion, but this post just threw me for a loop. You're basically saying "The MCL33 is not slow on speed traps because of drag, but because of drag".

It's different to have a "draggy" chassis in general and it's different to have more drag by running big wing angles (all teams will get more drag if they will increase those angles). If for example they have significantly slower top speed than others running the same wing angles as others, then drag is the problem itself (being produced by any other part of the chassis). But if you run high wings because you can't have the downforce you need, then it's not the chassis that's draggy, it's your setup choice. It's not that they run the same wings as the whole grid and still get slower top speed.

[zoroastar]

ricciardo to renault. things are beginning to tumble.

[RonDennis]

ricciardo to renault. things are beginning to tumble.

Sainz to McLaren, I like it.