They may have to ! Anyway, the Indy venture is turning sour for McLaren so far this year. Alonso is making noises about trying to get back in F1 next year.
Alonso was dissed big time on NBC. "He's not feeling any pressure because he just doesn't care." "I think this will bring down the curtain on Alonso's Indy career." Ouch!
So as a non Indy expert, can someone tell me why the McLaren car was so far off the pace this year vs last year?
It was not a bad idea, but in six months you can´t outsmart people who has been turning left for ages, despite some support from Carlin. Also the crew looked dazed and confused: they needed two days to fix a car because they installed the engine wrongly and blew it. Hopefully the Indy program will go on, but I´m afraid it will be without Alonso.
Complete yo-yo ride yesterday and today. Zakk Brown was even there. Alonso was upset yesterday. Lucky nothing happened to him in the crash. They could'nt get nothing to work. They even dropped it lower and it was scrapping the asphalt. This was a complete failure for McLaren, Zak, and Alonso at this years Indy.
Idea is great, but it is all about execution McLaren needs USA to buy more sport cars and this wont help at all Difficult Board to come for Zak
Technically McLaren was not at Indy last year. It was 2017, but time flies. McLaren should've teamed up with one of the stronger teams instead of trying to do it alone (mainly). I hope they don't try to buy another car's spot.
This year Alonso was racing Under McLaren control unlike last year where he was racing Under the Andretti umbrella. Alonso had his own new team this time rather than being a guest in an established team. The experience in setting up the car may have been lacking, since Alonso was only entered for the Indy 500. .
The team they partnered with for engineering help also had problems qualifying. What it shows you is a couple of things 1) anyone who says Indy racing at the 500 is easy hasn't a clue what they are talking about 2) unlike F1, the Indy teams DO help each other, which several did today try to get him in the show. Imagine Zak Brown calling up Ferrari for some advice on how to set up the car. But in this case, Andretti actually gave McLaren their shock settings and Penske gave them ride height and balance tips.
Well they know having him in the race is good for IndyCar and in turn their teams. This was a bigger loss to IndyCar than McLaren imo.
Yes, I was wondering if the 2 Carlin drivers didn't "fail" to qualify just to get Alonso in the show. You can call me cynical ... No, the challenge of Indianapolis is certainly not to be Under-estimated. Alonso and McLaren only wanted to enter that race, so not much practise before coming to the brickyard.
The real question is WHY Zak is wasting time and resources on it. Gil de Ferran was running the show. He's also the sporting director of the F1 team. Zak was at Indy all week. If I'm a Mac F1 sponsor I'm upset they are not giving their F1 team everything it needs to improve. If you look at the failure to qualify, it actually hurts McLaren's reputation. And my feeling is Alsono will blame the team an not himself for qualifying.
I thought that McLaren had created a new structure to tackle Indy this year (and years to come, presumably). They even recruited ex-Force India team manager Bob Fernley as the head. That's why they wanted to race Under a new banner this year. I had seen that as maybe a transition from F1 to Indycar in the plans. McLaren's future in F1 may be in doubt if the new rules in 2021 don't suit them. Maybe I read too much into it, but McLaren as Renault engine client in F1 won't go far, IMO. Now there are talks of McLaren buying a seat on a car that qualified. Uhhh, strange rules at Indy.
In a nutshell...it's a lot harder than they thought. There are at least 33 other teams and drivers who took it more seriously, even though they had less talent and fewer resources. Last year's effort was in conjunction with the Andretti Team who may not be the best in the game but they know a hell of a lot more about how to do Indy than McLaren does.
McLaren will try to pay a team to drop out of the race, and since Alonso was the 34th car in qualifying, he would move up to take the open spot.
If they do it McLaren's reputation is completely tarnished. They can't put a car on the grid so they buy out another team that could. Not going to look good at all.
Their fans would crucify them if they skipped from F1 to Indy. And Brown, being an American, would be the major villain.
