McLaren to lose sponsors next year

I believe Alonso had at least 1 other option; to stay at Ferrari.

 

Dennis was an idiot for refusing $43m This may be the beginning of the end of McLaren F1

 

Back to Renault in 2017 is my guess

 

Since when is hiring the best driver on the grid any kind of blunder?

 

What has Alonso done since Renault when he won two titles with Flavio?
Contrast that to when Schumi won two titles with Bennetton and then went to Ferrari.

 

I think Alonso should have won a title at McLaren, but they chose to break their gentlmans agreement over team orders with hambone, and lost the titles for him with their cheating.

His sojourn at Renault was productive given the state of the equipment, and then his five years at Ferrari were unfortunately coinciding with anti-development rules, and an unassailable design from newey at red bull. As it goes, to come runner up 2 or 3 times, and win races, given the rubbish he has been provided with over his five years, I think we saw immense talent from the chap. It's a shame Ferrari design was going the opposite direction to red bull at the exact same period of his tenure, and the development and testing bans prevented any chance of a Schumacher era where Ferrari chased the pack, caught them, beat them and then hit them for good measure.

Just my opinion of course

 

If Ferrari can be competitive next year & truly take it to Mercedes, then Alonso undoubtedly has the worst timing/luck of all the F1 drivers in history...

As for McLaren sponsors, I'm sure they will be back when and if McLaren can return to its winning ways. Until then, looks like Ron + Honda are going to have to float the team.

 

McLaren are in a world of hurt. What a debacle. Clearly Honda carry the can for this year, but there is no sign of improvement in the engine department and time is running out to turn it around before next year is toast. If 2016 gets off to a bad start I expect Honda to depart stage left. That will McLaren with no credible engine supply options. Merc - bridges burnt. Ferrari - hahahaaaa that would be comedy. Renault - just as bad as Honda. Could they leave the grid? It's not impossible sadly...

 

The return of BMW maybe..... Da da daaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

+1

Can you even imagine the resources Honda are throwing at this right now!? I suspect Manor could run for a few seasons at least on it!

I know it doesn't mean a lot (BMW & Toyota come to mind), but aren't they committed thru 2020? Backing out is, I believe, very bad karma in Japan (?)

I think you're being a little harsh on Renault there!

But no, I can't see them leaving the grid. As much as I'm no fan, that would be a sad day indeed.

Cheers,
Ian

 

No, Chris Amon has a lock on the title of unluckiest F1 driver of all time; nobody can ever match his streak of bad luck!

Audi, maybe? Long rumoured to be a potential VW group engine entry

 

When said driver has zero options in F1 and really hasn't showed a lot while at Ferrari.

 

Some people here have the memory retention of a gnat.

 

I guess we were watching different races?

 

True. And now their Board spends every day wishing they'd saved the money and spent it on engine development instead...

 

Sorry Chris, I have to disagree, Alonso showed, right to the end, a battling mentality that his teammates never mustered, and won races he had no right to even catch the podium in. The car is so important these days, without the right one, no one could win a championship, so to measure him, presumably on championships, over his tenure is a little unfair

 

they are not the only one loosing about sponsers:

According to Auto Motor und Sport 'Renault has already verbally agreed to the Red Bull F1 team to halt its cooperation. Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso should therefore look for new engines which are likely to Ferrari. Normally ran the cooperation between both parties until the end of 2016 .

More striking is that the Red Bull F1 team by ending its cooperation with Renault will also lose EUR 88 million in sponsorship money . This sponsorship comes from Total and Infiniti . The sponsorship of both companies would go to the new constructor Renault team , although there is as yet little of conscience. According to the latest rumors , the chances are that though the Lotus Renault F1 team will take over .

 

Honda made 4.4 Billion profit last year They don't stay up thinking about Alonso's salary
Just a small bump for them.Hopefully they'll apply more resources to F1 and get on top

 

Would love Renault to beat RB in 2017

 

I don't know... I'm just don't see Alonso as the "the best" and never have. I'm not a hater... I just think sometimes if you hear and read something over and over again it begins to lend itself as fact... sometimes unwarranted.

Last year he was making comments like "I can go anywhere I want." BS on that. He had one option for a upper tier team and that was Mac with other option of sitting out. If I remember right, Ferrari wasn't exactly begging him to stay. There were a number of stories about his personality and how it negatively impacted moral at the factory... basically the prima-donna type stuff. I like him well enough though and do think he's a great driver, but I stand by my assertion that given his options there was zero need to pay him what they did.

In the end, it shows how poorly Maclaren runs their business. 1) They paid top dollar for someone I bet would've come for a lot less... or 2) They should have realized their setup was never going to perform this year and should have signed Magnussen or some other driver and then went back to Alonso who'd be sitting on his couch doing nothing once things started working.

He's not known as a developer of the car so there was nothing to gain by signing him at what they did. It was poor play by Maclaren all around and they suffer even more by having such a high profile driver (and let's include Button in there I guess) having difficulty battling with Manor and Sauber in the back... if they even make it half way through the race.

 

McLaren have only themselves to blame for all this. I actually feel kinda sorry for them, but more sorry for FA and Jenson

 

Do you watch F1?

 

+1

Even I had to definitely swallow my pride and acknowledge that Alonso really is one of the very best. Still don't like him very much though .

 

I keep wondering about Honda involvement. This is their umteenth foray back into F1 after the glory years of Prost and Senna. Whether it was powering BAR or branded as Mugen powering the Jordan, they have not managed to make their mark. Ron is usually not very sentimental and i am surprised he walked away from Mercedes for Honda. If it were not for the fact that McLaren has many other businesses, I doubt the team could continue much longer. I was always shocked when they walked away from what became Brawn just as they were peaking.