Are McLaren losing the plot

[hilly10]

As the title really. They have made so many mistakes and wrong calls its a total farce. Cannot belong before Ron comes back to sort it

[vonuber]

hilly10 said:

Cannot belong before Ron comes back to sort it

Why, is he going to photocopy the Redbull this time?

[KaraK]

[cough]Sam Micheal[/cough]

[hilly10]

They were racing the middle and back of the grid today. There has to be a chance of Hammy jumping ship if it carries on

[Crafty_]

hilly10 said:

They were racing the middle and back of the grid today. There has to be a chance of Hammy jumping ship if it carries on

To where ? Alonso will block him, RBR would need to bin Webber to get him and I don't really see any reason to do that. I don't think Lotus have the budget. Merc is an option if they stump up the budget and Schu decides to pack it in (he won't imho).

Far as the OPs question goes yeah they have. Contrary to recent years they started with a good car but any updates have just had no effect. Shareholders will not put up with this and I'd be surprised if Ron isn't already taking a look at whats going on. They could do worse than grab James Key.

[TheHeretic]

They seem to be standing still with regards to performance, and other teams are advancing. They seem to be in there now with the Saubers, and Lotus. Although Button is having a mare, even today they wpseemed to have similarity pace, and even a fairly similar finishing position. They are not in a good place. I think Button is old enough, and experienced enough to not overly let it worry him, but Hamilton, I'm not sure. He may be looking at escape options if things do not improve quickly.

[stephen300o]

Strange with the huge resources they have they are being out developed by the baby teams.

[Use Psychology]

KaraK][cough]Sam Micheal[/cough said:

cough irrelevant cough

[RicksAlfas]

stephen300o said:

Strange with the huge resources they have they are being out developed by the baby teams.

They've got the most highly developed trolley jack in the world though.

[KaraK]

Use Psychology said:

KaraK][cough]Sam Micheal[/cough said:

cough irrelevant cough

It was somewhat tounge in cheek as I would imagine that McLaren's problems are bigger than any one man, he is doing a great impression of a bad luck charm though!

[TheHeretic]

Gaz. said:

Button's problem is that he's at the beggining of a new contract so he has no choice but to suck it up.

It is mighty interesting that Williams has improved massively this season and Mclaren have gone from being the outright fastest in Australia to struggling in the mid field before the half way point.

There's a connection there somewhere.

He will suck it up, but he's not a young chap now, so I don't think he will be anywhere near straining on the leash as the younger LH will be.

The change in performance from Australia to now is frankly unreal. Ignoring Jenson's run of shiity form, even LH with his excellent qualifying position is struggling in the race. Personally, I don't think it is the tyres that are the issue, but the car. They are really struggling to make progress, and diminish the issues they are having. I genuinely think that the majority of their issues are in the back rooms, rather than the guys in the car. It's just not working for them at all.

[BBS-LM]

I have to admit the performance this season is a step backwards, and is a real shame. But whats worse, no one at McLaren seem's to know what the problem is with the car, not good. I don't even want to talk about the pit stops.

[Streps]

Good news-No serious injuries to Sauber mechanics after Kamui Kobayashi's pit stop shunt
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101087

[sanf]

Crafty_ said:

hilly10 said:

They were racing the middle and back of the grid today. There has to be a chance of Hammy jumping ship if it carries on

To where ? Alonso will block him, RBR would need to bin Webber to get him and I don't really see any reason to do that. I don't think Lotus have the budget. Merc is an option if they stump up the budget and Schu decides to pack it in (he won't imho).

Far as the OPs question goes yeah they have. Contrary to recent years they started with a good car but any updates have just had no effect. Shareholders will not put up with this and I'd be surprised if Ron isn't already taking a look at whats going on. They could do worse than grab James Key.

Surely if Hamilton is serious about winning then money should be a secondary motivator? Food for thought today, being told he was doing a fantastic job while having to conceded to both a Lotus and Merc for a position in the lower half of the top 10. Lewis does seem to be flattering the car in quali but it's short comings are exposed in the race!

Interesting article in one of the papers today with Frank Williams, concludes with him saying if he could have any driver, money no object, he would choose Lewis. Any chance...........?

[Crafty_]

So given top seats are taken, where do you expect him to go to win a WDC ?

Whilst its great to see Williams back on the case I don't see them challenging for a championship any time soon. The magic words in that question were "money no object", Frank will not spend a penny if he doesn't have to.

[Crafty_]

If it were that simple why hasn't Frank signed Alonso/Vettel/Schumacher/Button over the past few years ?

They all love racing more than the money.

[Fonz]

vonuber said:

Why, is he going to photocopy the Redbull this time?

I thought the photocopying superstar was now the technical director at Williams...

Also the same bloke that designed the car LH won the title in.

and whilst I'm rambling on I’m sure that Nicole can keep her man supplied with beer money for a year or two.

[HeatonNorris]

It all seemed to go wrong for McLaren from the Mugello test onwards.

What I don't understand to this day is why they sent the drivers to do PR stuff, rather than have them sorting the car.

[Fonz]

Maybe that is when the new technical staff started to get a handle on the way that they thought that Mclaren should be run.

[H100S]

Whitmarsh needs to take some blame. Under his leadership they have been two cautious and also made two many fkups.