McLaren are slow – and unreliable too
28th March 2009, 8:02 by Keith Collantine 64 Comments »
Lewis Hamilton made it into Q2 before his McLaren faltered
Even when McLaren admitted their MP4-24 wasn’t on the pace there was still a suspicion that maybe, just maybe, they were having us on.
But qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix proved not only that the new car is slow – it’s unreliable too. A disastrous combination for defending world champion Lewis Hamilton.
The question now is, what can they do about it?
Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton line up 14th and 15th for the Australian Grand Prix tomorrow – assuming they don’t get any penalties which, with Hamilton’s car needing repairs, is possible.
The only cars behind them are the two Toro Rossos, the two Force Indias, and Nelson Piquet Jnr’s Renault. How has the team with the number one on its car got it so badly wrong?
Mclaren have a pattern of producing poorly-performing cars. The 2006 MP4/21 was winless and the MP4/19 of 2004 was a disaster until a B-specification version was introduced.
On top of that, while other teams like Brawn and Williams made an early start on their 2009 cars, McLaren pushed on with development of last year’s MP4-23 as Hamilton fought Massa for the drivers’ championship. It’s probably no coincidence that another team that have under-performed at Melbourne so far, Renault, also had a strong end to 2008 as they continued development of their car later than some of their rivals.
This opens up an intriguing storyline for the season, giving us an opportunity to see how well Hamilton and rival Alonso perform in two uncompetitive cars,and how good a job they make of bringing their teams back to the front.
There is one obvious development channel open to them – the controversial double-decker diffuser. Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota are all running with the innovation, which the FIA is set to hold an appeal hearing into on April 14th, five days before the Chinese Grand Prix. McLaren, like the other teams, will probably be banking on the FIA ruling the diffusers legal, and not having to go through the messy business of stripping likely wins and points from other teams.
But Red Bull, Ferrari and BMW all ran with conventional diffusers and all made it through to the final stage of qualifying, showing the MP4-24 has more problems than what’s going on at the back of the car.
Can McLaren get back to winning ways before the end of the season? Is Lewis Hamilton’s title defence over already? Have your say in the comments.
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Ninad said on 28th March 2009, 8:11
They need some drastic changes. They are atleast 1.5s down pacewise. Even if diffuser is banned. they will still be a second down. And they have tackle 2 things- speed and reliability. Its very difficult with limited testing. They are doomed I think.
They should concentrate on next year’s car………….
Pete Firestarter said on 28th March 2009, 14:11
I totally agree with you. Its a shame that we have started looking and Rubens and JB fighting each other for the championship. McLaren need to get rid of their head Aero (that chap from BAR honda) and perhaps get Geoff WIllis. It seems they will need a new car aero-wise. I feel sorry for the out going champion. I think Lewis need to get heavily involved in the development of the new / modified car.
Daniel said on 28th March 2009, 8:14
I Think Mclaren Can Get Back On Top.
I Think Today Was A Bad Day But There Was Signs Of Speed, Hamilton Was Only A Second Behind The Quick Brawn Cars So That Must Be Promising.
I Just Cant See The Mclarens At The Back Of The Grid!
Im A Big Mclaren Fan, So I Am Predicting Them To Get It Right, But When?
Hamilton Has Talked About Lack Of Downforce, Well If Next Week Brawn Williams & Toyota Are Found Legal Then Mclaren Have To Make A Diffuser Like Theres Because It Improves There Cars By Few Tenths Each Lap So They Need That Right Now!! I Wouldnt Be Suprised If They Are Working On It Now!!
Tomorrow Will Be A Good Race, It Will Show Us How Mclarens Race Pace Is But It Will Also Show Us, Is Lewis Hamilton A Great Driver Or Is He Just A Good Driver, Lewis Has Had 2 Great Cars The MP4/22 & MP4/23 Both Were Exceptional, The MP4/24 Isnt, This Car Needs A Driver Who Will Make It Exceptional! He Needs To Show His World Championship Material! That Is One Reason Why Mclaren Are Regretting Alonso Leave!! He Would Of Found The Problem!! Big Mistake, But That Was 2 Years Ago.
matt said on 28th March 2009, 15:19
Daniel – i have to agree re. Alonso.
The renault is also poor, but with McLaren’s budget, Alonso would make that crucial difference that Hamilton won’t be able to..
mail123456 said on 28th March 2009, 8:17
Is car really broken, or they just want to save some humiliation, and may be engine and tires? Hamilton p15 or couple of places higher don’t change anything, so why to bother go out anyway ?
sayonaraman said on 28th March 2009, 9:04
It was a first thing that came to my mind. Hamilton should be happy for Button who’s performance holds “the sun” and the rest of the bunch from eating poor Lewis alive.
Adam said on 28th March 2009, 22:28
I had exactly the same thought watching it. Heikki went out and couldn’t break out of P14 despite some clean runs. As soon as I saw that I figured Hamilton wouldn’t be back out. The McLaren boys knew that because of the poor performance of the car Hamilton just couldn’t get to Q3. Seeing that I think they just decided to save wear on the engine and tyres and pack it in early.
Daniel said on 28th March 2009, 8:17
After 1 Hour Of Qualifying!! Just Give Up And Focus On Next Year!!
NO!! There Season Can Be Revived!!
I Would Say If They Havent Caught Up By Spain On The 10th May Then I Would Say Start Developing Next Years Car.
Rhys said on 28th March 2009, 8:18
IMO it’ll take them more than a few grand prix to get it right and they’ll be quite a few points behind the title contenders, so they may just write 2009 off all together and begin work on the MP4-25 early. I mean, that is essentially what they did in 2006 and certainly the added time to develop the MP4-22/23 put them back up the front and into title contention.
Eddie Irvine said on 28th March 2009, 10:35
If you consider that rules around the specification of the cars will remain pretty much the same, it’s very easy to develop this years car without losing time for the 2010 car evolution as the most of the new parts will be on the next years car too.
I think McLaren is a very good organised team and will cope with this current situation and will come out stronger. They gain a full second (2s behind –> 1s behind) in just 2 days of testing, I guess they will need 2 or 3 GPs in order to close the difference to some tenths. Untill then Button, Williams and Andrian Newey will be the reason to cheer about!!!
Andrew White said on 28th March 2009, 8:20
Isn’t it a bit early to judge reliability? He’s had one break down! Using that logic you could say that the Ferrari is unreliable because of Kimi’s hydraulics problem.
But I agree that McLaren definitely need to find some pace.
Keith Collantine said on 28th March 2009, 14:37
True, but reliability is ultra-important these days: in recent years championship winners have relied on cars with near zero failures during races and/or qualifying.
SYM said on 28th March 2009, 8:22
McLaren’s aerodynamicsits : Sabotage! How can they fall off a cliff like that?
Oh well at least Button may bring some cheer this season
Toby Bushby said on 28th March 2009, 8:38
Because this is real life. Things happen, especially with more reliance on wind tunnels, computers and simulators. Sounds funny, but this may help McLaren in the long run. They have the best simulators? Cool….
StrFerrari4Ever said on 28th March 2009, 8:30
well with the situation regarding Mclaren i think they were a bit too happy during the winter because of the drivers championship they had just won and their efforts on the MP4/24 have turned out to be well average the car is fast in a straight line but i dont think it can produce the same amount of downforce as the Brawn and other top running cars well its good though seeing F1 form book ripped and the grid being shaken up even Fernando Alonso felt the pressure but will see how Mclaren go tommorow if the cars are indeed close together you never know during safety car periods they could just knick a few places
P.S I do not like Mclaren
SYM said on 28th March 2009, 9:32
@Toby Bushby
I see your point. I hope McLaren’s designers get a better balance between classical engineering techniques and simulation.
I think the big teams are relying far too much on simulation feedback, because they can afford to do so, to design what are now far simpler cars.
Its typical of the ‘pretty pictures’ engineering approach, that is associated with the over reliance on simulation techniques. These techniques are still limited, first by the maths then by the processing, which introduces two significant levels of abstraction between the design ethos and the final product. Again it could also be, from a design point of view, a case of ‘too many cooks’.
In my opinion, they’ve been using a “huge pencil to draw a small picture”,
Pradeek said on 28th March 2009, 8:31
It isn’t just the diffusers that are boosting Brawn.They’ve set up an awesome car that they started developing from last year.Williams and Toyota,the other teams with these diffusers look in the same field as the other cars. As far as McLaren are concerned,they’re having a bad race.They’ll be in the top 10 in no time.
Toby Bushby said on 28th March 2009, 8:32
McLaren are in strife, pure and simple. They’ll surely develop the car, get a new diffuser and get somewhere back towards the front. Will they get back to challenging for the Championship? No. Will they get back to challenging for wins? Maybe. I think it’s 2006 all over again, even though they’re worse off to start with. I think their development capability is better than most teams, especially with testing bans, so they’ll get somewhere near the front by mid-season. Just don’t expect a bag of wins. I’m sure McLaren will be back at the front in 2010, so don’t despair Macca fans – just settle into 2009 with the normal outlook of a midfield team fan like me, thanks to Nakajima’s inability to qualify properly……
Cameron said on 28th March 2009, 8:36
It’s McLaren. They are considered a top team, with cutting edge facilities and financial backing. Yeah, what they thought would work on the computers, and in the tunnel, didn’t turn out very good, they are more than capable of finding form. Just give them some time.
The same goes for Ferrari. It won’t take long for them to be at the front of the table again too.
This is only race one… Don’t count anyone out, especially a team like McLaren.
I predict at least one podium minimum for McLaren this year.
schumi the greatest said on 28th March 2009, 8:46
hmm not sure, in q3 hamilton’s 1st lap was good, obviously as the rubber went down everone went quicker and if that problem hadnt happened with the drive of his car i think he would of made it thought to q3 because he would of got everythin out of it. kovalainen just never looks like hes pushing that hard to me.
as brundle said during the commentary, you can see that the car is hitting all the apexes in the right places but there is a slight delay in poutting the power down coming out of the corners so obviously there is a lack of rear end grip. if you consider the mclaren is a fraction longer getting back on the throttle in every corner then over a lap its going to be a big difference, if they can solve that problem i think theyl be back up there but thats alot easier said than done when there’s no in season testing.
will be good to watch though
todd said on 28th March 2009, 8:48
i think it’ll be a while before they are winning races again, i can see their development picking them off the back of the grid, but not winning for a while. maybe next year.
Mouse_Nightshirt said on 28th March 2009, 8:51
I don’t have confidence this will be fixed any time soon. With the testing ban, with each track being different with little way to compare components and with much effort being dialled out for race weekend preparation, McLaren will struggle well into the summer in my opinion.
Lewis Hamilton will not be WDC. And neither will Massa or Kimi I reckon; it’ll be close, but I have a sneaky suspicion a Red Bull might come a cropper by the end of the season.
Jonathan said on 28th March 2009, 9:08
I think it’s a bit unfair to call them ‘unreliable’ – one breakdown (though very unlucky in the first quali) doesn’t make them unreliable!
But yes they are slow!