McLaren tossing in the towel for NEXT year?

Interesting in that McLaren is already downplaying next year because of the Mercedes break up. I can see the point where Merc would rather concentrate resources on their own team and give Mac left overs.

It was great while it lasted...

'Merc relationship will fizzle out' | Planet F1 | Formula One Teams | McLaren


Sam Michael admits McLaren's relationship with Mercedes will most likely not be "as productive" next season as the duo are set to split.

McLaren first teamed up with Mercedes back in 1995, winning three Drivers' Championship titles and one Constructors' crown.

The long-term partnership, though, is set to dissolve at the end of next season as McLaren have signed a new deal with Honda.

"There's no doubt that when you finish a relationship, whether it's with an engine partner or with anyone else, that part of the relationship is not as productive as the start of it, or probably the middle," Michael told Autosport.

 

I hope so

 

Some years ago it looked as if Ron Dennis was set to go the path of Ferrari - success in F1, success with road cars. Now the road cars don't sell as expected, and their F1 operation seems to take the Williams way...

 

Thought they were going to hook up with Honda, I certainly don't want to see them go down the pan, a great foe for the prancing horse...or was.

 

Thing is they are following Ferrari's pattern.
At a similar point in company history F1 success wasn't consistent and road car sales were often weak. If anything Macca is doing a better job.

 

ahhh but times are much different now then when Ferrari was going through the same process. Much less room for error now

 

Sounds logical but I'm not so sure. They danced quite close to the edge many times. Given the number of small producers who keep coming back these days I'm unconvinced.

 

Here's to more years of irrelevance for McLaren!

 

To me, it was a huge let down in the strategic side of things for McLaren this weekend.
Why on earth did they plan a one stopper starting with the options with full tanks
is not clear to me. A team of the level and experience of McLaren would know best that
the tires wouldn't last for that long and I don't buy that the rain on Friday or Q3 hampered
the tests because they should have enough data already. For that to work it was the
hard compound; just ask Di Resta and the 'Nut case'.

I hear that things will improve by Silverstone but from the looks the season is gone;
they are not going to catch anybody now. If anything, they will be lucky if they can
beat Force India now.

 

Mystifying why they started on softs expecting to go two stops.

 

Mercedes has to build engines for Mercedes.
Why would they not use the same materials and tooling to build an equal engine for Mclaren ?
Its hard for me to imagine purposely screwing Mclaren but who knows what happens behind the scenes.
Are they being screwed now (thus the sudden drop in standings) ?

 

They are missing Dennis the fearsome menace..

 

That would be my guess.

I wonder if that means Kobayashi would wind up at McLaren?

 

I hope McLaren turns it around soon. I believe that they will be a force when paired with Honda.

 

Agreed. Its too early to call time on them.

In my mind McLaren, Ferrari and Williams have paid their dues over the years and are integral part of Formula One history. I always think about the class of drivers that drove for these teams.

I don't care that much for the other teams - particularly Red Bull. It is too late to do something about Williams but F & M need prosper.

 

Mclaren is a good team and they wont stay down for long. Honda can also make some great engines so next year is a real wild card for all the teams.

 

Why does everyone think Honda is going to turn McLaren into a winner?

Right now, McLaren just needs to worry about trying to catch Force India.

I ****ing love it.

 

Williams weren't exactly a shoddy team and yet they've been down for quite some time now!
(And yes, McLaren are a much bigger team than Williams, but lets not forget that both Toyota and Honda dwarf McLaren and yet they both had problems in F1 that they couldn't solve!).

Also, bear in mind that McLaren have some of the most talented engineers and designers on the Planet and yet they still cannot fathom exactly what is wrong with their car this year.

Honda are not coming back into F1 until 2015 so their engine building ability is of no relevance to any of the teams for next year.

Next year will be a blank canvas for all of the teams, however, in the case of McLaren, basically what they are saying is that they expect it to be an interim year for them, possibly of limited value due to their forthcoming split with Mercedes and that they expect their proper comeback to happen in 2015 with Honda.

People on here seem to be reading far too much into the McLaren statement as I see it, jumping to conclusions about the demise of McLaren in F1.
All they're saying is that their future is with Honda and not Mercedes and so they are not getting their hopes up for 2014.

As I see it, they're simply being realistic about their forthcoming situation.

 

It must have been pretty tough for you watching this combo blitz the track then.
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As the old saying goes: "Past Results Do Not Guarantee Future Performance."



All the talk about Honda making great engines has got Me thinking: Didn't the Honda F1 cars have Honda engines? - right up to the point where Honda bailed out of F1?

It would appear that a great engine is nothing without a decent chassis to fit it into, and currently, McLaren's problems are most definitely in the chassis department and not the engine department!

 

Yup, however the more the merrier IMO, I would not knock any team/engine manufacturer giving F1 a whirl, nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

It's not that Macca has been down before that's indicative but that its come back more than once.

 

I believe McLaren is going through exactly what the Scuderia did last year...figuring out the car after the switch to pull rod front suspension. As soon as it's sorted they'll be fine.

 

While there's a lot to that until someone explains why they started on softs when running a two stop strategy I have to suspect that there are other issues.

 

Thing is, Ferrari had their car sorted by this point last year.

Oh wait, that was actually just Alonso's immense talent. Never mind.