gasly managed to tear his race suit on the halo

 

Rookie mistake.

 

but did he die?

 

Rumors are going around that they are shopping with other teams on the grid. One of the Bacardi Board members is also on the McLaren board...

 

Claire is misinformed then.

“It’s the end of their contract,” Williams confirmed. “We have been in discussion with them for many months now about an extension beyond 2018 as you’d expect.”

Williams said Martini have chosen to leave now because they have “achieved their objectives” in the sport.

“I think every brand is entitled to evolve their marketing objectives over time and that’s what Martini are doing. So they’re withdrawing not just from Williams but the whole of Formula One. You won’t see them on another team.”

 

she's the darling of the paddock but i don't give her high marks for her role in the team.

i think monisha did much better signing 5 drivers to two race seats @ sauber

 

Boulliar claimed a bracket was installed backwards

 

Sounding funky


'specially when the Merc pulls up

 

Watching from the track (as I have once every year since 2010 #humblebrag), you could always tell the McLaren was going by. The Honda always sounded distinct. Parts rowdy, unrefined, raw. I liked it a lot.

Too bad it ran like *** compared to the rest.

McLaren are better off with Renault, who at least has demonstrated an ability to win recently. Honda has been up **** creek sine 2007.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic about Honda this year. The last 2 days of cockups by McLaren and what GA had to say about the McLaren's demands on the PU size is starting to make me wonder if the mess of the last 3 years wasn't more of a 50/50 when it comes to fault as opposed to the 80/20 that is generally accepted.

Renault talking about using strategic penalties to give them moar PUs. The 3 PU limit is so stupid. Should have kept it at 5 (if not moar)

 

All GA has said is if you want to be mediocre, run a Honda PU. McLaren took a mediocre PU concept and made it **** by pushing the development envelope. That's my take away anyways.

Ain't gonna topple Merc or Ferrari with a Honda powered car, since they can't communicate "no" nor apparently explain (not with words, but experimental/simulated data) how giving up some size (aero) gets you faster cause moar PU deployment.

I cannot be convinced that the **** show that was McLaren Honda v2 was 80/20 for Honda. Honda was rushed to develop a program from scratch, and really just never delivered on the targets that they agreed to with McLaren.

Of course McLaren wasn't blameless, but how on ******* earth do you screw up an oil tank at this level?

 

I bet ***** Buxton is involved with the F1 TV thing. He was being coy a little earlier on twitter (i think?) about landing a "seat" to announce in a week or two. Something tells me it won't be the Sky feed... or maybe he'll be commentating again on the feeder series for F1 TV?

 

i bet he's on the f1 stream commentary team yeah

fresh and brings in younger audience, exactly what they want

 

How do you mount an exhaust bracket backward and have the exhaust come off and burn up wiring harnesses at this level?

I agree with you. I think Honda was unprepared for what they were getting into and I think McLaren went in with the attitude be reasonable, do it my way. For all we know the oil tank issue had to do with McLaren telling them what shape it needed to be to fit the tub. It's been proven that Honda wouldn't or couldn't tell McLaren no. GA said something interesting yday about Honda being able to tell TR what they wanted to do since they are a much less "powerful" team.

Let's suppose that RB go with Honda next year. Do you think RB would listen to Honda or would it turn into another disaster? You would think there would be lessons learned for everyone with the McLaren Honda debacle, but then again it is RB.

 

i expect the amount of advance information exchange between TR and RB will make the honda transition very smooth for Horner and Co

 

If they take it. I assume they will, but Renault just said the RB has until the end of May to decide what to do. It sounds like Renault is not going to cutoff RB as was widely speculated before.

 

99 tyres



and snow ain't 1

 

How many years preparation do you guys recon a company like Honda needs to adequately develope an F1 engine?
Didn't they have like 3years of prep time?

Wonder how would thet fair in the next round of engine reg changes in a few years time.....

 

I don't think they had 3 years. If I remember correctly it was 2 at most but I think they wanted to wait until 2016 to start. However McLaren needed them in 2015 because their deal for free Merc PUs ran through 2014. Plus 2016 they were still stuck with a bad design due to tokens not allowing them to change major parts of the PU.

It's been so long tho I can't remember all the details.

 

in the non-hybrid era, I'd imagine it would take much less time to get an engine developed, but with the addition of turbos and their added architecture plus energy recovery systems, the whole process is a lot more complicated.

---

That Honda in the STR sounds like ***.

 

Sounds P good at 4:16


And that Sauber livery looks P good on track too. I thought it needed moar red when I first saw, but I really like it.

 

I agree, it did sound pretty good.

 

I'm not going to give McLaren a pass per se (here comes the pass), but those little stupid things happen pre-season and otherwise. Those are the things you get out of the way that are not fundamental to the product you've developed and are now testing right? I fear that every little operational hiccup McLaren has, the bandwagon will jump out and say "See! It wasn't all Honda's fault!". Which is kinda stupid, because we knew that already. Are we really comparing booboo's between a loose wheel nut (or exhaust clamp) and a PU system that is ~100hp down on power AND unreliable? c'mon

Note: I wrote this hours ago, but work is being... work.

 

I think they announced the partnership in 2013, and went racing in 2015.

 

FORZA MCLAREN