Mclaren heading for trouble next year?

Gazelle SG

Looking at movement of the key people at Mclaren, I think 2006 will be Mclaren best chance to win the championship.

1) Alex Wurz (Test Driver) to Williams
2) Adrian Newey (Technical Director) to Red Bull Racing
3) Thomas Tombazis (Chief Engineer Aerodynamic Development) to Ferrari
4) Peter Prodromou (Chief Aerodynamicist) to Red Bull Racing.
5) Kimi and Juan might leave for Ferrari and RBR in 2007

On top of that, Mclaren has to switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres in 2007.

[email protected] SG

And what about the positives? Or are u just out to ignore the positives? Rolling Eyes

Gazelle SG

I havent heard of any really positive news except for signing of Alonso and Vodafone as title sponsor.

[email protected] SG

those are 2 very strong positives. And they can progress further. U didn't see renault suffer from Mike's departure did u? Once a winning infrastructure is in place, its easier to do well even without a couple of key personal. Besides, neither Kimi nor Monty are confirmed to leave yet. To say they will definately lose the 2 drivers is premature.

Gazelle SG

Vodafone will only make up for the lost of their tobacco title sponsor WEST, and Toyota has proved that $$ will not bring you instant success in F1.

Everybody knows that aero and tyres are the most influencial component in F1, and losing so many key people from in the technical department is definitely bad news for the team.

[email protected] SG

we shall wait n see

Gazelle SG

It seems like the crack within the mclaren team is starting to appear now, and kimi seems to be very critical about it too. Is Kimi's future already not with Mclaren?

Another interesting news is that Ron has briefly mentioned that Hamilton might get a race seat in 2007, and this is against Mclaren's philosophy of no rookies in the team. Seems like sponsorship $$ for the first black F1 driver it too tempting and that might be the best option if kimi leaves.

There is also news saying that Marlboro is willing to foot the bill if Ferrari can secrure Kimi as MS team mate. I personally think that if Ferrari can continues to win races, I see no reason for Kimi not to take up this offer.

Gazelle SG

There are reports that Merc is consider buying up Mclaren. Is Merc starting to get impatient with Ron?

Gazelle SG

Apparently, there is no winning infrastructures in place at mclaren and it looks like the MTC is not really paying off like Ron is saying.

Another F1 observer thinks McLaren Mercedes might be feeling the recent loss of Adrian Newey.

The Woking based outfit, which also lost Nicholas Tombazis and Peter Prodromou in recent times, has now clearly fallen behind the leading battle of Renault and Ferrari.

Former Jordan Technical Director Gary Anderson said this week that the loss of key engineers goes some way to explaining the slow-down.

The effect of the departure of engineers at McLaren is now becoming apparent," Marc Surer, who contested 87 Grand Prix in the 80s, told Motorsport Aktuell magazine.

McLaren has yet to win a Grand Prix so far in 2006, and the per-lap deficit stretched out to around a second at Barcelona last Sunday.

"The specialists who designed the car, understand it best and know how to make it faster," the Swiss added, "are now gone."

McLaren are currently a fairly safe third in the Constructors' Championship, 18 points clear of Honda.

E.A.

Gedanken SG

Hmmm.

If the past few years' results were what the current team could produce, perhaps a change is exactly what McLaren needs. The precedent is, of course, Ferrari, where bringing in a new team (Scum, Todt, Brawn and Byrne) broke a 16-year WCC drought.

I'd like to see some changes in Mercedes while we're at it. Every since beryllium got banned, Haug and his mob have been struggling to build an engine that can get the car right up at the front.

I suspect that Gaz may be right here. Mac will have a new team that will need to learn how to work together, and if they're half smart , they'll be focussing on getting reliability down pat before working on performance. These things will take time, and unless something spectacular happens, 2007's not going to be all that great for them.

Gazelle SG

Many people claim that the death of Paul Morgan in 2001 was the turning point for Ilmor, and since then they haven't been able to come out with an engine that can challenge the performance and reliability of of BMW and Ferrari, and now Renault and even Toyota.

A few years back, Merc actually thought they have recruited one of the ace engine designer from BMW, but they later found out that the real dude that design the powerful BMW V10 engine is someone else.. Laughing

I believe something major is going to happen at MclarenMerc, and a divorce is a possibility. Reason is because the cost of running a F1 team will become much more affordable comes 2008 and Ron will be very keen to join the likes of Williams and Prodrive as independent team.

As for Merc, it is an open secret that Merc wants to run his own team, just like Toyota, BMW, Renault, Honda, Ferrari and very soon maybe VW. Can they afford not to go solo? I dont think so. A Merc/AMG team is probably what they need. Laughing

Kuali Baba SG

They seem to have the reliability this season, with only Montoya's retirement at the 'Ring being the only mechanical retirement of the season thus far. I don't know if it can be attributed to a detuned engine.

The MP4-21 was devilishly quick in Kimi's hands at Sakhir if you remember. All the promise has fizzled out since then and it seems to me as if they've stalled in the upgrades department.

Gazelle SG

what about the rear suspension failure this season? According to report, that was a mechanical faillure. if you are competing for championship, you cant expect such thing to happen.

Gazelle SG

Raikkonen's Ferrari deal is done - Lauda

18 May 2006
Former F1 champion and ex-F1 team boss Niki Lauda expects Kimi Raikkonen to take up a seat at Ferrari next season and believes Michael Schumacher will most likely retire. Lauda, himself formerly a Ferrari driver, says Ferrari's announcement they would let Schumacher take his time in deciding his future means that the Raikkonen deal is a certainty.

"Ferrari must have an alternative driver to Schumacher," Lauda told Reuters. "The most logical one is Raikkonen - and they can't afford to wait until the end of the year. If they did wait around until the end of the year they'd have no lead driver signed up and would have to race with Massa and their test driver."

"They must have fixed Kimi in one way or another and if Schumacher continues then Massa will be a test driver and if Michael doesn't continue Massa will race," he added. "That's my logic."

Gazelle SG

I wonder how many Mclaren/Kimi fan will switch to support Ferrari next year? Consider this: -

a) Mclaren is ALMOST certain that they are not going to win anything next year due to their internal problems.

b) Mclaren leading driver is going to be Alonso, whom alot of mclaren fans dislike.

c) Kimi is still the F1 idol at the moment because he is stll the cool ICE Man.. Cool

If the deal is through, I am sure Ferrari is going to made load of money selling Ferrari/Kimi Merchandize, just like what Real Madrid did when they got David Beckham.

Gazelle SG

whats up!! we have got a foaming mclaren at monaco today.
Shocked

here we go again!! jialat sipeh jialat..

Kuali Baba SG

There wasn't any need to change the engine. Just an overworked heat sink. And their pace in FP 1 & 2 was pretty brisk. Wink

Gazelle SG

another blow for kimi, his engine up in smoke again. did you saw him hangout with a bunch of dude in tha yacht? probably there alittle too early for happy hour. Laughing

Gedanken SG

Hey, gotta give it to Iceboy. He just went to chill instead of cracking it like Webber did. Laughing

Gazelle SG

Problem within the team is starting to surface. Guess the departure of Newey is starting to take its toll on the team's aero development.

Kimi Raikkonen says his McLaren is still not quick enough to challenge for wins in 2006.

The Finn, who is likely to leave the Mercedes-powered outfit at the end of the year, finished second at Silverstone on Sunday and was a pacesetter at the preceding race on the streets of Monte Carlo.

But he said the British Grand Prix, dominated by Renault's Fernando Alonso, was more representative of the MP4-21 car's actual pace.

''(And) we weren't quick enough,'' said Raikkonen. ''Third place was the most we could do.
''

Part of McLaren's problem in England was a lack of outright top speed, but the 26-year-old - who had even second place stolen by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher - admitted that the handling of his silver car was also not right.

Raikkonen continued: ''With Michael on new tyres there was no way that I could have kept him behind. The car was pretty hard to drive.

''We've improved it a bit but we are still too slow to fight for wins.

''We could challenge in Monaco but here it's back to reality,'' he said.

Source GMM