7 replies to this topic

[dierome87]

With some free time at home as a result of the pandemic, I checked out the stats of the 2013 season and I noticed what a mediocre McLaren had.

 

In hindsight, it was clearly the first warning sign of decline of the team, but I still struggle to understand what happened. There were no major rule, personnel or engine supplier changes in that year and the drivers they had were decent. Perez took a lot of the blame of what happened but, again, in retrospective, the struggles of that year were owed more to the car than to the ability of the drivers.

 

How could the team fall so quickly from arguably producing the best car of 2012 to only the fifth in the following one?

Edited by dierome87, 17 April 2020 - 09:56.

[bogi]

They changed front of the car completely (unnecessary), and the car was slower than year before. After that they tried to stick to that concept and developed it but they failed. They changed car philosophy in the last year of regulations, insane decision.

[pacificquay]

Cost M Whitmarsh his job ultimately

[BertoC]

To this day I still think they would've been race winners in 2013 with a modified MP4-27.

Edited by BertoC, 17 April 2020 - 08:42.

[shure]

They changed front of the car completely (unnecessary), and the car was slower than year before. After that they tried to stick to that concept and developed it but they failed. They changed car philosophy in the last year of regulations, insane decision.

yeah, pretty much this.  They decided that the 2012 car, which was very good, had no more development potential and chose a radically new approach, which is a bit of an idiotic decision given that they knew there would be massive regulation change in the following year

[Clrnc]

https://www.marca.co...1359742048.html

 

Slight but deadly modifications to front suspension. 

[f1rules]

yeah that was really crazy, how they came up with that, but looking at the tech director at that time Paddy lowe, im not surprised, he did the same at williams, the merc team was just to strong/good for him to ruin :-)

Edited by f1rules, 17 April 2020 - 10:05.

[f1rules]

well i asked the nicest former mclaren engineer and he said the following

 

 

Arguably the fastest car at the start and the end of the season. Unfortunately, the decision for the following year’s chassis had to be taken during the Summer and as the ‘27 wasn’t showing so well at this time... the rest is a pill that is still bitter.