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Is McLaren the new Williams?


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#101 rich06

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Posted 25 September 2015 - 15:56

Yes Mclaren are the new Williams. The truth is they have been trash since 2000. It's only because of Lewis that they managed to scrape the WDC on 2008, but they have not won the Constructors championship since 1998! They always seem to rely on gimmicks to make their car fast rather than just build a fundamentally fast car, remember the 3rd brake pedal? Octo-exhaust, F-Duct, butterfly rear suspension arms, mosquito nose, U-shape sidepods, horn-wings on the airbox... Now we have 'size zero' design philosophy! Yet none of these things really worked lol. They are a right mess and I don't see it changing anytime soon - although I hope to be proved wrong.

 

Agree with what you say but I think the f-duct was a simple good innovation that worked... which is why it got quickly copied and prompty banned :)



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#102 Denaris

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Posted 25 September 2015 - 19:36

Agree with what you say but I think the f-duct was a simple good innovation that worked... which is why it got quickly copied and prompty banned :)

Good point, but maybe I should clarify what I meant. Many of these gimmicks did work in the sense that they boosted the performance of the car, but they didn't work in making that car a dominant one which is what I was trying to say. I give them 10 out of 10 for innovation, but it seems as if that comes at the detriment of a fundamentally fast car in the first place. The recent success of Mercedes and RB shows that a long term plan, 3-5 years of evolutionary design, is what brings sustained results. Why oh why do Mclaren keep starting from a fresh slate each year?

 

The typical Mclaren development schedule seems to be;

 

1. Start Season with revolutionary design which doesn't work.

2. Realise mistake halfway through season.

3. Rapidly improve and start to catch the front runners.

4. Scrap everything they learned and go back to step one over winter.

 

Hopefully this could be the start of a long term plan back to the top, but they are starting from such a low point that I think we would have to wait until the next round of engine regs before they can realistically make that happen. I would be surprised if they are front runners anytime before 2020!



#103 Jimisgod

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Posted 26 September 2015 - 01:52

Ah but their innovation might get them to the front in one season! :up: :up: :up:



#104 baddog

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Posted 26 September 2015 - 02:00

The two teams' situations could not be more different.



#105 BlinkyMcSquinty

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Posted 26 September 2015 - 04:00

It's more about Honda being the new BRM H-16. On paper a killer engine, but in practice a mess.