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Whitmarsh: “We are in the entertainment business, we have to make the show” | 2012 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:19:44 +0000

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren MP4-27 launch, 2012

Martin Whitmarsh said F1 must strive to keep up the action-packed racing it has produced in recent years.

Speaking at the launch of the McLaren MP4-27, Whitmarsh said: “For a few years I think people were a little bit worried.

“They recognised that Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor sport: it’s the most technically advanced, has the best drivers in the world, the best teams.

“But they were a little bit concerned about the spectacle and the show. I think the last two seasons have been full of drama, fantastic overtaking, great races, and just a great television spectacle.

“We can always make it better – the sport sometimes is a little bit inward-looking, a bit introverted, it doesn’t always do the best job of promoting itself. We’ve got perhaps too much cynicism in a our sport because Formula 1 and soccer are the only true world sports.

“And we can make the sport a lot bigger and a lot better. It’s sometimes a challenge for teams to work together as we know – we’re trying to compete and trying to beat each other on Sunday afternoon. But we’re learning slowly – not quite as quickly as everybody would like!”

Asked if the sport was too reliant on “artificial” devices to increase overtaking, Whitmarsh said: “We often within the sport view it from a very purists’ perspective: we don’t like artificial elements. It’s the same argument for people who don’t like DRS. And I can understand and respect that.”

“But I think we have to accept that we are in the entertainment business, we have to make the show.”

Whitmarsh suggested the reduction in the performance gap between the tyre compounds offered by Pirelli may affect the quality of racing negatively: “The probability is that the gap between them will be narrowed. Purists will prefer it – I wonder, though, whether it will be to the detriment of the show.”

He urged the sport to make a success of its return to the USA ahead of the forthcoming race at the Circuit of the Americas in November: “I think of all the teams believe it’s very important.

“We’ve got to make a success of it this time. We know that our time in America has been spasmodic and unsuccessful. We treat it almost as a new market.

“But actually there’s a huge interest in Formula 1 that’s untapped in the United States. We’ve got to work hard and what we’ve got to accept is America doesn’t need Formula 1, we need it more than it needs us. So I think the onus has to be on the teams, the promoter, and the commercial rights holder, to work hard and ensure that we educate, we promote, we develop the interest, and we reach out in America.

“We’ve got to work harder than at perhaps for a Grand Prix in Europe or Asia or South America where there is a ready interest, a ready uptake. We’ve got a real challenge. But it’s important to our commercial partners, the States is a rather big market for any multinational company.

“As I mentioned earlier there are only two world sports – soccer and Formula 1 – and for us to be a great world sport we’ve got to conquer the States.”

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Image © McLaren

Whitmarsh expects no repeat of 2011 testing problems | 2012 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:41:07 +0000

McLaren MP4-27, 2012

Martin Whitmarsh says McLaren should avoid a repeat of their poor start to the year pre-season in 2011.

Speaking at the launch of the McLaren MP4-27, Whitmarsh said: “We had, by anyone’s standards and McLaren’s standards, an abysmal winter testing session last year, where we didn’t have reliability or pace.

“It was really tribute to the fantastic team work, the engineers and everyone with the organisation to respond to the and arrive in Australia in a reasonable, competitive position, which I think surprised a lot of people.

“But it was a relatively stressful process so I’d be much happier to be not fighting those sorts of issues. We’ve put a lot of work into this car and we don’t think we’ll have a repeat of last winter.”

Whitmarsh added: “I’m sure it’s no surprise to everyone here that our goal is to win two world championships this year. That’s what we exist to do, that’s what we try to do every year. We don’t always succeed, it’s a very challenging, competitive series.

“We are there or thereabouts, we don’t like losing, coming second the last two years has had its frustrations. We’re proud of some great moments and some great moments in those years but ultimately we want to win and we want to win world championships.”

Whitmarsh moved to quell speculation over the future of McLaren’s engine arrangement. Engine supplier Mercedes are going into their third year of running their own team, and McLaren are gearing up their road car production programme.

But Whitmarsh denied there were plans for McLaren to produce their own F1 engines: “Firstly, we’ve got a great partner – we’ve been 18 years in partnership with Mercedes-Benz,” he said.

“They make probably the best engine in Formula 1 so the motivation to change is very limited, we enjoy that partnership and we intend to continue for a number of years.

“But I think ultimately Formula 1 is very powerful environment to promote a motoring brand and get brand exposure. We have no plans in the short term, medium term or long term to manufacture our own engines.

“I think we’re not trying to be a facsimile of Ferrari – we have great respect for Ferrari and what they’ve achieved. But we’ll do it our way and a feature of McLaren is having long-term, successful partnerships. We’ve got partnerships on [the MP4-27] in excess of 30 years, 27 years, and we’re very proud of the relationship with Mercedes-Benz.

“We think we bring value to their brand, we give them good exposure, good competition for their own team, and it works for both of us.”

He added: “People will speculate because of our road car programme, but at the moment it makes no sense for us.”

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Image © McLaren

Exhaust-blown diffuser ban “a real challenge”, say McLaren drivers | 2012 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:58:44 +0000

Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, McLaren MP4-27, 2012

McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button say the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers will make driving more difficult in 2012.

Speaking at the launch of the new McLaren MP4-27 the pair said the car is designed to cope with the effects of the ban.

Hamilton said the changes at the rear of the car will be especially significant: “Particularly the back of the car is a lot neater than it was last year. It’s much, much tighter. The focus is making it as snug as possible at the back to improve aerodynamics. It’s just refinement.

“The [rear] wing is a bit better in terms of dropping drag. We’re trying our best to improve the rear flow especially with no blown diffuser this year it’s going to be very tricky for us. You’ll lose a lot of downforce without the blown diffuser.

“When we were off-power last year we had a tremendous amount of downforce just coming from the back floor with the exhaust-blown diffuser. We don’t have that this year which is really the biggest loss for us.”

He added: “It’s about finding the balance last year we obviously had a lot of weight and a lot of downforce on the rear of the car and we had to try to balance it with getting enough front end. This year I think it will be the other way around: having too much at the front and trying to find more rear.

“In terms of driving we are yet to really put it to the test how much we have to change our driving style. But I’m sure it’s going to be a real challenge this year.”

Button added the change in the diffuser rules could cost teams “a lot of lap time”.

In a light-hearted moment Button said he preferred the sleek nose of the McLaren to the kind of nose seen on the Caterham last week:

“As you can see this is a beautiful car,” said Button. “Many of them that you see will not be. That’s something we definitely have and to me that’s important.”

Hamilton added: “We’ve changed the mirrors, we’ll be able to see a lot better. Felipe [Massa] will be very happy with that!

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Image © McLaren

McLaren MP4-27 and MP4-26 compared | 2012 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:49:33 +0000

Here’s how the new McLaren MP4-27 compares with its predecessor.

Find more pictures of the McLaren MP4-27 here.

McLaren MP4-27 and MP4-26 side comparison

McLaren MP4-27 and MP4-26 comparison

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Images © McLaren

McLaren MP4-27 launch – first pictures of McLaren’s 2012 F1 car | 2012 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:05:46 +0000

McLaren MP4-27, 2012

McLaren have revealed their latest F1 contender.

The MP4-27 is the car the team hope will allow Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to compete for the championship in 2012.

Button said: “As you can see, this is a beautiful car. Many you see will not be.”

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh added: “Cars really do look beautiful if they win races. But beauty is more than skin deep and there’s some beautiful engineering under the skin.”

Hamilton described the new car as a “strong base”. The 2008 world champion said: “I’ve been keenly following the development of MP4-27 over the winter and I’ve been really encouraged by the results and the data that the engineers have been showing me.

“I think we already had a very strong base to build upon: Jenson and I won six races with MP4-26 last year and I think we’ve been able to retain all the strengths and the reliability of that design while also incorporating lots of improvements and new ideas into the new car.

“Of course, the biggest changes for 2012 are the modifications to the exhaust regulations – that will reduce the downforce and grip that we had last year, but it just puts the emphasis on the designers to try and claw some of that back in other areas.”

According to McLaren, the new car features narrower rear bodywork, to improve airflow at the rear of the car. The revised cooling system re-directs air to the gearbox oil-cooler. The distinctive U-shaped sidepods of the 2011 car are gone, which McLaren say is a consequence of the FIA’s new exhaust regulations.

McLaren finished second in the championship for the last two years, and so have the numbers three and four on their cars once again. Whitmarsh said: “Having finished second in the constructors’ championship for the past two seasons, we’re determined to mount a sustained, hard challenge for both world titles.

“Our engineering team continues to develop and grow: while the key names who head the department are well known – Tim Goss, Paddy Lowe and Neil Oatley – it’s the strength in depth within the department that continually impresses. I’m extremely proud of our efforts to invest in and recruit young graduate engineers and to develop and school them in the ways of Formula 1.”

Test driver Oliver Turvey will be first to drive the car at Jerez next week.

More information on the 2012 F1 season.

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Images © McLaren, F1 Fanatic

McLaren are runners-up again after troubled start to 2011 | 2011 F1 season review

Keith Collantine — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:26:41 +0000

Button scored his third win of the year at Suzuka

McLaren got their 2011 campaign off to a dreadful start as the MP4-26 had a troubled gestation.

But by the start of the season they had improved enough to be Red Bull’s closest challengers.

They ended the season as runners-up in the constructors’ championship for the seventh time since they last won it in 1998.

McLaren’s elaborate ‘octopus’ exhaust system was at the root of the car’s troubles in testing. It was hurriedly discarded and replaced with a more conventional set-up in time for the first race in Melbourne.

It boded well for the team that Lewis Hamilton was able to finish second despite the 11th-hour changes to the car. When he won third time out in China, the team had realistic hopes of challenging Red Bull over the season.

McLaren team stats 2011

Best race result (number)	1st (6)
Best grid position (number)	1st (1)
Non-finishes (mechanical/other)	5 (3/2)
Laps completed (% of total)	2,108 (93.03%)
Laps led (% of total)	238 (21.01%)
Championship position (2010)	2nd (2nd)
Championship points (2010)	497 (454)
Pit stop performance ranking	3

It didn’t work out that way. Too often in the first half of the season they were frustrated by an inability to out-qualify Red Bull on Saturday or out-manouevre them on Sunday. This cost them potential wins at a time when the MP4-26 was arguably the faster car over a race stint.

Questionable strategic decisions, particularly on Hamilton’s side of the garage, compromised them further: failing to set a lap early in qualifying at Monaco, or putting on intermediate tyres in Hungary – though it must be said that Hamilton himself could and should have overruled these calls.

Hamilton also struggled to adapt his hard-charging style to the demands of less durable tyres. “I can’t go any slower,” he memorably told his team over the radio during the European Grand Prix.

Hamilton had several collisions, including this one with Webber

On top of that, Hamilton found himself embroiled in a series of needless clashes with rivals, in which he was more often than not the guilty party. He collided with Felipe Massa alone in Monaco, Singapore, Japan and India.

Added to that were further mishaps in Canada, Monaco, Hungary and Belgium with other drivers. But on his day Hamilton’s driving was top-notch as ever – whether he was chasing down and passing Sebastian Vettel to win in China, taking on Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber for victory at the Nurburgring, or breaking Red Bull’s pole position monopoly in Korea.

Without his litany of mistakes Hamilton could have been second in the championship, but it’s unrealistic to suggest he might have beaten Vettel with the equipment he had at his disposal.

Instead it was Jenson Button who ended the year runner-up to Vettel, with as many wins as Hamilton but twice as many podium finishes.

Button gave away less to Hamilton in qualifying than he had last year and was often more than a match for his team mate in the races. A virtuoso drive in Canada produced his first win of the year. He added another wet weather win in Hungary where, as in China last year, he avoided changing tyres while Hamilton headed for the pits.

The change of tyre supplier over the winter clearly played into Button’s hands. On several occasions he was able to make one fewer pit stop than Hamilton which usually worked to his advantage.

McLaren face the same problem as the rest of Red Bull’s rivals in trying to build a car that’s as quick as the RB7. But they have also identified areas to improve on the operational side, and here the recruitment of Sam Michael from Williams may pay dividends.

Testing revealed acute problems with the MP4-26

Errors such as giving Hamilton too little fuel in qualifying in Singapore, or too little time to set a flying lap in Q3 in Japan, or allowing Button to miss Q3 in Belgium, amounted to needless squandering of their potential.

The team has already shown signs of progress. Having been forced to retire Button after a pit stop error in Britain, McLaren were the quickest team in the pits in the final two races.

Six wins and second place in the championship is a lot better than the team might have expected back in February. But getting on terms with the champions will take more than just building a faster car.

2011 F1 season review

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Images © McLaren, Red Bull/Getty images, Pirelli

McLaren to have new car ready for first test | 2012 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:40:35 +0000

McLaren MP4-26 launch, Berlin, 2011

McLaren’s 2012 F1 car will be ready for the first test of 2012, the team have confirmed.

The MP4-27 will be launched on February 1st, prior to the beginning of testing at Jerez.

McLaren have not yet confirmed where the launch will be held.

Sauber have previously confirmed their new car will be ready for the first test, but Mercedes’ W03 won’t.

Keep track of all the car launch, test sessions, races and more with the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar

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Image © McLaren

2011 F1 driver rankings no.3: Jenson Button | 2011 F1 season review

Keith Collantine — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:24:43 +0000

Celebrating his third win of 2011 at Suzuka

For the first few races of the year it seemed as though Jenson Button was running to the same form we’d seen in 2010: qualifying and finishing slightly behind his team mate.

But it quickly became apparent the balance of power had shifted at McLaren. Over the course of the season the pair were evenly matched in terms of who was ahead, but it was overwhelmingly Button, not Lewis Hamilton, who brought home the best results.

At season’s end his tally of podium finishes stood at 12 to Hamilton’s six, and Button had become the first of Hamilton’s team mates to beat him over a full season of F1 (although Fernando Alonso came very close in 2007).

The keys to Button’s advantage were twofold: first, he lacked Hamilton’s propensity for sticking his car in the scenery (or, more often, Felipe Massa).

Beat team mate in qualifying	6/19
Beat team mate in race	7/14
Races finished	17/19
Laps spent ahead of team mate	445/975

Second – and most importantly – he was usually able to get better performance out of his tyres. This was not often the case in qualifying, where Hamilton exerted his usual advantage, but regularly so in the races.

This was first apparent in Malaysia, where Button finished second after making one pit stop fewer than Hamilton. This tended to give Button a handy advantage in the races, though not always. In Turkey his tyres went off towards the end of his final stint and he was passed by Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

As we saw last year, Button seems to have a sixth sense in mixed weather conditions and he was in stunning form in Canada and Hungary. His furious pace in drying conditions at Montreal allowed him to take a shock win after pressuring Sebastian Vettel into a mistake on the final lap. This came after he’d fallen to the back of the field due to an earlier penalty.

In Hungary it was a straight fight between the McLaren team mates and it was Hamilton who cracked, spinning away his advantage and compounding his mistake with a late switch to intermediate tyres which the canny Button avoided.

Button overcame Hamilton to win in Hungary

By the second half of the season Button decisively had the upper hand. Without consecutive retirements at Silverstone and the Nurburgring due to technical reasons, his advantage over Hamilton would have been even greater.

After that, he was on the podium at eight of the final nine rounds. That included a nip-and-tuck win over Alonso and Vettel at Suzuka.

Vettel’s retirement in Abu Dhabi might have offered the chance for another win had Button not spent the race wrestling with a KERS fault. Under the circumstances he did extraordinarily well to salvage third – Martin Whitmarsh called his drive “absolutely storming”.

Many people – myself included – doubted Button would be able to beat Hamilton at McLaren. He deserves full credit not just for his achievement this year, but for taking on a fellow world champion in the same team in the first place.

He’s already reaping the awards for his efforts with a three-year McLaren contract extension announced in October.

F1 Fanatics on Jenson Button

His best year by far. He is one of the most intelligent drivers in the field, and it became his biggest weapon this year, always knowing when to push, when to save the equipment, when to relinquish and when to attack. He won over Hamilton convincingly with two mechanical retirements to his team-mate’s none, and could have been a serious contender if the car was a bit faster.
Guilherme

Who expected him to beat Hamilton by almost two race wins’ worth of points? Exceptional race pace.
Tflb1

Button snatched victory on the last lap in Canada

One of the best seasons by Button. In the second half of the season he almost beat Vettel in terms of points. If it wasn’t for the British and German Grands Prix then he would have been a lot closer.
Smifaye

Really stepped up this year. His previous weakness (his qualifying) has been much improved on, although still not perfect he more than made up for it with his determination, cunning, overtaking prowess and attention to detail.

No-one thought he’d beat Hamilton, but he did, and did it in style: His win at Canada is one of the best drives I’ve ever seen and I’ll remember it for a long, long time.
Dan Thorn

Able to capitalise on his team mate’s downturn in form with some epic drives this year. Canada surely has to be one of the best F1 drives of all time. Hungary and Japan were exceptional too. Unlucky not to add to those wins at Monaco.
Supernicebob

Jenson Button 2011 form guide

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2011 F1 driver rankings no.5: Lewis Hamilton | 2011 F1 season review

Keith Collantine — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:40:23 +0000

No celebration for Hamilton after taking pole in Korea

“The personal life, the way things have gone have not been as smooth and as happy as they could have been in the past and to do what I do is a combination of many, many things that are surrounding you”

Lewis Hamilton explaining his troubles in 2011? No – this quote is from last December. This is Hamilton describing what went wrong last year.

Twelve months on the explanation hasn’t changed but Hamilton’s form has clearly suffered.

Hamilton has always been a error-prone driver. This was true when he won the F3 Euroseries in 2005, the GP2 championship in 2006, and the world championship three years ago. This makes ranking him among his peers a case of weighing up the brilliant drives against the mistakes.

Previously the moments of genius have vastly outweighed the gaffes. But this was not the case in 2011.

During a fraught season he collided with his team mate Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado and – on several occasions – Felipe Massa.

Beat team mate in qualifying	13/19
Beat team mate in race	7/14
Races finished	16/19
Laps spent ahead of team mate	530/975

At times he paid the price of putting himself at the mercy of another driver during an overtaking move. This worked brilliantly when he forced his way past Button in China – not so much when applied to Maldonado and Massa in Monaco.

This was not the case of a few minor racing incidents. Hamilton committed the kind of baffling blunders not worthy of a driver of his calibre. Such as carelessly driving into the back of Massa in Singapore. Or repeating almost move-for-move the same driving he’d been warned about in Sepang last year, leading inevitably to a penalty.

Rare were the weekends when Hamilton did not make at least one appearance before the stewards. This prompted his notorious outburst in Monaco where he claimed the stewards singled him out more often than other drivers. But looking at the record over his five years in F1, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, one or two incidents aside, Hamilton’s treatment from the stewards has been entirely fair.

It’s easy to play up the desperate moments of Hamilton’s 2011 campaign and overlook the moments of genuine inspiration. His victories in China and Germany were from the top drawer, blending speed and Hamilton’s characteristic aggression and verve racing for position against the best drivers in the world. I simply couldn’t bring myself to place a driver capable of those performances outside the top five.

He began the season strongly in Australia after a torrid off-season for McLaren, hounded Sebastian Vettel in Spain, and was the only driver to beat Red Bull to pole position all year.

Happier times: Winning in Germany

What really lies at the root of Hamilton’s unsettled year is the cause of considerable speculation. Much has been made of his decision to appoint managers who are more concerned with Lewis Hamilton the brand rather than the racing driver.

It’s also true that he came under greater pressure within his team than ever before, ending the season behind his team mate for the first time in F1. Hamilton was usually quicker than Button in qualifying but on race day Button often got more life and performance from the new specification tyres.

Come the end of the season there were some signs Hamilton had begun to find his form again. He took a third win in Abu Dhabi, gifted by Vettel’s first-lap retirement. But he ended the year with an anonymous performance in Brazil which ended with a rare gearbox failure.

It was a suitably unsatisfactory end to a season which Hamilton would probably sooner forget.

F1 Fanatics on Lewis Hamilton

Much has been said about his issues so I won’t go into detail, but it’s been a poor season for him. Even so, his wins in China and Germany were of the highest class – his driving skills have never been in doubt, only his mentality.

It’s good for the sport that he seems to have got on top of whatever issues he had, because Formula 1 without an on-form Lewis is lacking.
Dan Thorn

Occasional flashes of brilliance in China and Germany were marred by silly mistakes and unusual muted performances. He seemed to be constantly involved in needless incidents that took valuable points from him. Outclassed by Button this year in and out of the cockpit.
Colossal Squid

Second in Melbourne felt like win after testing trouble

Hamilton is an excellent qualifier and a daring overtaker. But this year, his judgement has been poor and he has attempted many moves which were neither sensible, nor necessary. With DRS and disintegrating tyres, many moves which were once ‘brave’ and now ‘foolish’ – and Hamilton hasn’t had the nous to adjust his strategy.

Behind all that Hamilton remains fast, and won three races (albeit Abu Dhabi was almost uncontested). Almost any team on the grid would love to have him.
Alex

Some races he was just off the pace (Valencia, India and Brazil although he had a problem at Brazil) and others he was just reckless/unfortunate. He may have been stellar in Germany and China but apart from that it was like someone else was driving the car.

I never expected Lewis to have a season like this and I’m sure he’ll bounce back but few greats have such a woeful and distracted season when in good cars. He can’t afford another year like this.
Steph

Lewis Hamilton 2011 form guide

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McLaren goes carbon neutral | 2011 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:39:06 +0000

The McLaren Technology Centre

McLaren announced it has become the first carbon neutral Formula 1 team.

The team achieved the Carbon Trust Standard 12 months ago and since then has invested in carbon offsetting schemes in India and Brazil – countries chosen, the team says, for their prominence on the F1 calendar.

The team claims this has allowed it to “officially become fully carbon-neutral”.

McLaren has also been recognised by the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme. In a league table of more than 2000 participating British businesses McLaren was ranked 92nd, being the highest Formula 1 team and car manufacturer on the list.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “I’m both delighted and proud that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has become the world’s first carbon-neutral Formula 1 team.

“It’s a considerable achievement: the result of a lot of hard work by a number of extremely dedicated individuals within our organisation, and a testament to our philosophy of continuous improvement within the workplace.”

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