Mercedes Dumps Mclaren

Yeah, they announced this a week or so ago. Apparently there were 2 or 3 projects in the hopper that they left to shrivel and die. As far as the racing question, I was wondering the same, and it seems a bit convoluted. From what I can tell, the McLaren/Mercedes road car partnership had little to do with the racing partnership, other than whatever little technology they borrowed. We'll see.

 

I heard the news a couple of weeks ago and I was not surprised. Mclaren's Gordon Murray was not proud of the porker SLR shoved down his throat by Merc. I seriously doubt if this would effect their F1 replationship. If they part in F1 I am sure it will be based on its own merits of not being able to get a championship together.

 

That was my impressions of the deal as well.

I know the SLR isn't selling as well as once hoped. There are two that I know of that have been sitting in show rooms for a few months. That certainly wasn't the case for the F1.

 

The market is too crowded. BoDs are looking at the actual sales numbers and they're not supporting the case for expansion.

 

Give Mercedes a few more years... with McLaren threatening to pull out of F1, Mercedes might just decide to have a factory based team in F1 and say goodbye to McLaren once and for all.

 

The SLR is built at the McLaren factory isnt it? So is the production going to move now that the road car partnership is kaput...

 

I hope McClaren-Mercedes F1 partnership dissolves so my hypothetical dream-team (Porsche-McClaren) can become a reality

It all makes sense and the cards are falling into place!

 

Now that would be interesting !
2 yes 2 factory based teams in F1.

 

We already have 2 factory teams, Ferrari and Toyota.

 

I was being sarcastic
I meant 2 front runners. Real players.
Not the rolling chicane known as Toyota : )

 

I thought Renault IS a front runner?

 

Been there and done that, rewind to the 80's or 90's.

BTW: It's McLaren .

Ferrari and Williams are lucky that McLaren keep wasting time on road cars ... if they would only stopping masturbating with stupid unnecessary road cars and fully concentrate on F1, then they would still be winning. McLaren is a race team and should leave the road car cr@p to road car makers IMO. Everytime they play with it their F1 efforts suffer ...

Pete

 

I also remember reading Murray was P/O'ed about creating a heavyweight automatic tranny car, definitely against his ideals and he seems a strong willed chap.

If MB had any sense, they would finance a roadcar and just let Murray do what he wants and then slap an MB on it. I would say knows where the pulse of the sportscar market is IMO, at least in the specialty $400k+ market...

PSK - I think the problem with dropping road cars for racing is that road cars are where there is at least the possibility for actual profits.

 

McLaren do not make road cars for profits ... Ron Dennis built that team up to where it is by racing and sponsorship, etc. ... then they made a road car, as a whim.

I believe that, yes they may make $ profits, but it hurts them over all financially 'cause they go backwards on the grid and thus loose sponsors and F1 money.

McLaren is not a Ford or even a Ferrari, just a race shop ... no need to sell stock to survive.

Pete

 

I do not think the McLaren Mercedes partnership will last more than 2 years in F1. The time to part ways has come.

 

Agree.

Pete

 

I think renault is a promising team, Front runners , subjective.
Let's see what they do this year.

 

Man, they (MB) must have forced Gordon Murray kicking and screaming to approve the plans for the SLR. It's too bad profit always gets in the way of real car development. It's odd to see the same shop that gave us the ultra-light, fast, nimble McLaren F1 created the bloated, automatic, SLR.

I'm not too fond of the SLR, maybe if McLaren had NEVER created the F1 I could have accepted the SLR. But I just can't do it, I'm always comparing it back to the McLaren F1.

 

I think eventually McLaren-Mercedes will simply be Mercedes and BAR-Honda will simply be Honda, giving us four factory teams in F1 and making it look more like the 1950s all the time! Perhaps Williams-BMW will become simply BMW?

 

Imperial,

my dearest Sato lover, you're right here.

the SLR is the ugliest way to spend big $ on transport. what a useless idea with no target market.

MB is in deep financial trouble with profits in free fall as everyone realise the brand is merely an echo of past greatness. their reliability has caused huge customer loss. their CEO is one stupid moron.

how McC gets out? MB sells their equity to an Arab pal of Ron's....maybe TAG comes back??????? [w/o the porsche].

now that we're down to two tyre sets, Big Al Prost could make a comeback for them too. no one saved tyres better than Big Al.

 

After reading the previous posts, you may be interested to know that Gordan Murray is shortly to leave mclaren to pursue his dream of designing a "city" car. I also agree with comments about the slr, it completley underperforms in its area.It does not seem to do anything good enough to justify the price. The magazines i read say it is one of the best motorway cars ever.......says it all really! And yes it is true that mercedes own a large % of the company, with mansour ojeh of tag electronics fame owning most of the rest. As an aside tag mclaren audio has also finished in the audiophile business......seems to me they should concerntrate on building good racing cars instead of being sidetracked by money wasting ideas(the £200 million paragon complex for one).Who needs that to build a great car....You need the right team of people, a wind tunnel and a clean environment to work....not a bloody great artificial lake and god knows what else..No wonder they are moaning they are skint....they will be more skint when m-b buggers off and carrys on building tank like saloon cars to get back into profitability.Where will dennis be then?Excuse me Ross..any chance of one of your engines? i know we had our differences but we are up the creek without a paddle(engine).Let me have some half price and i will tell you a great place to go fishing!

 

this might shed some light on it ~

www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=358315

 

Not too surprised that Gordan Murray is leaving McLaren.