McLaren coy on 2015 driver line-up | McLaren | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1 More speculation but Im wondering if both seats will be open at McLaren not just 1.....
That would be nice; then Fernando could be teamed with his old pal Lewis Hamilton again. Ron Dennis would be extatic... Rgds
I think McLaren would be foolish to let either of those guys go, Button (old veteran, World Champion, good looking Brit) and Magnussen (young, aggressive and fast) seems to be the ideal pairing. Given what we know about FA and his toxic relationships with team mates and team management, I wouldn't sign him regardless of how many championships he has.
I doubt the mclaren honda partnership will be half as successful as last time. Top drivers to to top teams. Mclaren would be worse for FA than ferrari at the moment
Ferrari have been worse year over year with FA in the seat. He will leave sooner rather than later. Why stay when mediocrity is apparent. Ferrari have not improved. Honda has had ample time to produce a nice motor. Ferrari and Renault have failed thus far. Next year I don't see Mercedes appearing weaker. Domencali has also stated as much. FA staying is as much a gamble as leaving for McLaren if it does happen.
Alonso is gone from Ferrari that much is pretty clear. If he stays its because of money and no other open seats. Alonso at Mclaren? maybe - Redbull to me seems more likely. Ferrari would be good to take both Button and Magnussen ... or Vettel and Button... that would be good. the current Ferrari line up - not good.
I have the feeling that Button is past his best, and maybe McLaren will show him the way to retirement at the end of this year. The jury is still out about Magnussen. How good he is is still to be seen. That second place at his first GP may have flattered him. I share your feelings regarding Alonso. The guy may be quick, but sulky at the best of times and troubles wherever he goes.
McLaren have got to be one of the hottest seats on the grid next year by virtue of using a new Honda engine. With all other teams effectively spec frozen on engines, Honda have the massive advantage of knowing the power target to beat. If they don't knock it out of the park, they will have seriously dropped the ball. Alonso going there sounds entirely possible - but who would be the right number 2?
2015; I don't see any driver changes. Ferrari to Mclaren is a lateral move at best.... Vettel ain't leaving RB Mclaren already has the best engine on the grid.....
I don't see why he's "gone from Ferrari". The car's problem is a lack of power in comparison to the Merc. Ferrari will already have copied the split turbo for next year so I would doubt the problem will be anything like as bad.
Why would McLaren want Fred back? Honda engines are cool for nostalgic sake, but we haven't seem them perform in the current heat of competition yet either. A lot remains to be seen.
I hope he doesn't leave. Ferrari are my favorite team. And watching them struggle like this every race is very hard. My only consolation is knowing that all this sucking is also depriving Alonso of more wins and championships...
Why would Red Bull want Alonso? They have the equiv of Alonso in his younger years when Alonso got his first title for Renault - a young fresh scrappy driver that got upped from an under team to a podium finisher - and is out to prove he deserves it. Alonso on the other hand - is toxic, he once was a great guy to have in the seat, but is now too self centered, and focused on beating his teammate, rather than beating the other teams. Look at Crashgate before he left Renault, look at the hamilton fiasco at Mclaren, and if you watched the last few years at Ferrari, and paid attention to the pits and radio, you'd see he's still toxic. Put him in a great car, and he'll drive it better than anyone, but he won't work with another great driver in car development. Ferrari's other main issue, is their engine can't keep pace with the Mercedes unit - and if we think "copying" the mercedes design will put them on par - I say wait to see what new thing mercedes turns out.
Is the driver as big a factor in these cars? We all know how the car to have changes with the rules. Mclaren,Williams, Red-Bull, Ferrari etc all had there day in the past. Now Mercedes is on top. Is Honda power going to make a difference?? We shall see. Remember all the money Toyata spent in the past with nothing to show. Ago
Oops! - Wrong! Honda have no advantage whatsoever over any of the other engine manufacturers for 2015 as the whole engine homologation process will start afresh for 2015. This means that all of the engine manufacturers can put new engines forward for homologation, not just Honda! - None of the 2014 engine suppliers are subject to a "spec freeze" on their engines (within the confines of the FIA regulations on engines). This is being done to enable manufacturers who believe they could improve their engines and better match their rivals, to do so. You're making a massive assumption that Honda are going to have a competitive engine from day one - As Renault found out, that's not guaranteed at all! The reality of the situation is, Honda will actually start the season at a disadvantage to the other engine manufacturers as the other manufacturers will already have a whole seasons experience of running these types of engines under race conditions. If anything, this could actually make McLaren a bigger gamble for a driver than any of the other teams! Don't assume that Honda will come back into F1 and instantly dominate it! - After all, they didn't do that well the last time they were in F1!
As if Honda will not have gained any data at all? Honda could do quite well. Renault, the fools they are started very late. Openly admitted. They started late. We know so little and gain data from the press. Im betting Ron Dennis has a good idea of what to expect. He is hardly a gambler in terms of blindly thinking Honda will perform like a Renault. He has probably seen the motor and data on what it can do already. As if they started this last week. Ron Dennis will demand serious effort from them and accountability. Leaving Mercedes is a risk. He will not take that lightly at all. FA could also be informed of their progress.
He does seem to piss off everybody he works with. As a friend of mine says of one of our business associates: "The guy walks into the room and ****s all over every thing and then leaves." Seems like FA does this.
McLaren's reason for dumping the MB is that it's not designed to suit their chassis but for the factory's. The Honda design will be a better match. He hopes.
So where's all this real world data for Honda coming from? - Ferrari?, Renault?, Mercedes? I think not! Where's the car that they've been running on tracks to gain their data? - I haven't seen anything. Sure they'll have test bed data - So did Ferrari and Renault and it didn't do them much good compared to Mercedes! Honda had great real world data for the last F1 effort and as I say, it didn't exactly work out that well for them did it? Ron Dennis has been looking to sever the ties with Mercedes for a long time now. It has always bugged him that any success McLaren had was seen as being down to Mercedes more than McLaren. The whole Mercedes buying McLaren deal fell through because Dennis couldn't bear to let it go. Once Mercedes realised this they set up their own team and from that moment on, McLaren knew it could be a problem because the bosses of Mercedes would not want their team to be beaten by one of their customers. What were their choices for an alternative engine at the time though? Ferrari? - No chance!, Renault? - They were already stretching to supply teams so that wasn't viable. This left Mercedes as their only option. Now Honda want to try F1 again and Dennis has seized the opportunity to ditch Mercedes and make the team his again (he'll probably end up being niggled by some of the "input" that Honda will place upon the team, but he'll put a brave face on it - As he did with Mercedes). I'm not saying Honda won't do well on their return to F1, I'm just saying that it's not guaranteed as some seem to think it will be. Yes Honda have some great engineers, but they had great engineers when they were last in F1! By the same token, Ferrari have some great engineers in F1 right now, as do Renault, but that's no guarantee of success (as this season is showing!). Even Honda themselves have admitted that they are at a disadvantage due to the other engine manufacturers having a season with the current power units under their belts. Dennis isn't taking a gamble on Honda? - With Honda having no race experience of the latest Generation of power units I'd say he is taking a gamble! Currently the Mercedes power unit is the best in F1 and Dennis is giving that up in the hope that Honda can do better! - You don't see that as a gamble? And I seriously doubt that when this deal was done, that Honda already had an engine on a test rig to show Dennis and convince him that it was superior to Mercedes' effort! Alonso going to McLaren? - Unless the Honda power unit proves to better than everyone else's (or at least a matches the best), and McLaren guarantee that they will focus all of their attention on getting him a WDC then I can't see it happening!
The divorce between McLaren and Mercedes has nothing to do with F1, but with Daimler-Benz strategy regarding sport cars. On the strength of its limited run if McLaren F1, Mercedes chose McLaren to design and build its supercar: the McLaren Mercedes SLR. Gordon Murray toiled many months to engineer that car to Mercedes initial concept. The co-operation wasn't easy, and the car had a long gestation before coming to the market. Both Murray and Dennis found that the massive front-engine SLR was a step back from the sleek F1. Disgusted, Murray left McLaren after signing off the SLR. Ron Dennis had already the intention to launch a series of rear-engine sport cars, and when he announced that to Mercedes, they were against the idea. The split was inevitable. Mercedes couldn't be associated any longer with Dennis; they resold to him the 25% shares they had taken, and went to AMG for their next sport car. Ron Dennis insisted that the F1 engine supply contract remained in place and started looking for alternative. Honda came on the horizon.
