McLaren – George Talks

Blimey, a livery the F1 community can agree on.

What a 5 years it’s been for the Woking team. From GP2 engines, to sunbathing drivers, to new engines, to rejuvenation and a podium. Just look how bland and worryingly bare the McHonda years were, and compare it to today’s MCL35. It’s two different teams, and it could only be done with a changing of the guard.

Look at today’s launch; a far cry from the sterile surroundings of yesteryear. McLaren has to have the best fan engagement on the grid. Fans seeing the car before anyone else? The advent calender? Regular factory tours? Their sense of unity and building for the future together is creating a formidable force, and I hate to say it, it’s because of a lack of a certain Fernando Alonso. They’re no longer chasing their tail whilst bent over backwards to ensure a competitive car from day 1 just to please the two time champion. That steep learning curve has completely changed the philosophy from we’ll be back next year, to striding forward slowly. As with last year, that mentality was echoed again today. 4^th place again this year is doable and would show progress of a team ready to topple the top 3 ahead of the regulation change. That’s 4^th place with what’s quickly become the worst power unit too. Impressive.

Of course it does help that the car does look nice. If 2015-2017’s looks were an omen of the performance to come, then 2020 could be a good year for McLaren. Of course as the old saying the car only looks nice if it’s fast, so let’s not count chickens before they’ve hatched. Just a shame they painted the halo. At least change it to the bare carbon fibre or the blue used for accents. It just doesn’t quite hit the mark. But the matte is an interesting change, and no doubt because of the slight performance benefits. What McLaren is doing exceptionally well is showing you can keep your colour scheme but change it up and make some excitement when the covers come off. You couldn’t say that about the launches so far. Renault’s obviously a different, perplexing story, but we’ll get to them another day.

The launch itself was also a benchmark effort too. If Ferrari’s was an ode to the ostentatious launches of the 90s and 00s, then today’s was a strong contender of how good an efficient launch can be in the 10s and 20s. The car was the centre piece of the launch, not the tricolore or a new principle partner. And of course it actually helps the car was there in person and was as similar to a 2020 car as you’re going to get at launch. I think it was half an hour total show and the car was out for 20 minutes of that. Carlos’ 2020 lid was also a very welcome surprise, definitely a contender for best newcomer award, along with Lewis’ purple effort.

Watching McLaren’s performance over 2020 will be interesting, with James Key taking over the reins from Pat Fry, and some new philosophies appearing down the car it’s difficult to know how much of a step forward, if at all McLaren will take this year. It could end up being a total rehash of the 2013 escapade; a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a car combining bits of the Red Bull, Ferrari and the previous year’s McLaren. The 2013 McLaren did follow a competitive car in the MP4-27, so there is some symmetry there, but of course it’d be difficult to see the same thing happening twice, right?

Performance-wise it will always help to have two competitive drivers who get on and are eager to prove themselves. McLaren were certainly the surprise package of last year and a lot of that has to go down to the driver pairing of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. It was difficult to see if McLaren legitimately had the 4^th fastest car every weekend, but the ability of its drivers together with better strategy calls meant they extracted the maximum from every race. Carlos really brought himself back into the top fold after a couple of slightly below par seasons by his standards, whilst Lando had a strong rookie season, unlucky to not win the overall title of Rookie of the Year. He still had some rough edges to straighten out, but that’s to be expected in a rookie season, and only his second year on the Pirellis. The fight for qualifying supremacy was one of the highlights of the season and Lando eventually came out on top, so not a bad effort overall.

I’m biting my tongue this year. If I’m not mistaken, I said Renault would be well clear of the midfield and putting great pressure on Red Bull, with a struggling Honda power unit last year. Uhhhhhhhhh… I’m not saying anything remotely close to that this year, but if McLaren keep themselves at the sharp end of the midfield, while appearing to close the gap on the established frontrunners, it’s a success. Obviously they wouldn’t want 5^th, but it wouldn’t be a disaster. The big push still remains 2021. Having said that, Renault still haven’t got a physical car together, which at this stage of Winter is never a good sign. I’ll guess we’ll wait and see in the next few weeks.

Nice to have a car we can 99% agree looks nice though huh?

McLaren reveal their who their secret valentine is, and if it’s anything as good as it looks, they are in for a better tomorrow.

The closer to today we got, the more and more I felt that McLaren were going to bottle it. They’ve done anything but. It’d be the typical build you up before letting you down. I remember this time last year, the MCL33 undergoing its shakedown and thinking ‘Christ it’s a bit basic’ but it could quite easily be passed off as just having a dumbed down launch spec just to hide the dirty secrets. Yet, it was not until Spain did we see a MCL33 mark II as it were. Even then they just strapped the ugliest looking nose on the car and hoped it was a second a lap faster. But the struggles still continued, and the only positives to be drawn was the flaws they had were now exposed, and there was a better attempt at a papaya car.

Speaking of better, have you seen their new wheels? Ugh that car is magnificent. They’ve matched papaya with a better blue for a start. After last year’s bland effort, the Woking team spiced it up with a fade, if you can call it a fade, between the two colours with this bleeding of triangles, in a sort of geometric effect. When they had the team members in those snazzy t-shirts (more on this later), I thought they were going to over do it. I thought the scheme for this year was going to be far too busy. It’s actually tame and very effective. The blue front wing stays, but they’ve hidden the snout by not colouring it, which is a blessing. The new numbering is another departure from the Dennis era bland, business look, and is appreciated. It’s great that it’s a tie-in to the rest of the car. Again, I won’t try to pretend I know what I’m talking about, but it’s encouraging to see a developed barge board and sidepod area, which since 2017 has been behind the curve in development. Even the vortex generators, which were a mainstay on last year’s challenger, have been replaced by Red Bull or Ferrari style planes. The point I’m making is that the complexity is a relief. I can’t emphasise enough that I’m not saying it will or will not be effective, it’s just good to see, for McLaren’s sake. Obviously, we’re still yet to see proper 2019 cars elsewhere, but it looks like a step in the right direction.

Back to the car, the removal of papaya towards the floor of the car a la 2018 Williams, certainly tidies up the car and helps it look aggressive. Then to arguably the car’s centrepiece, that geometric fade. It’s not too in your face and is exponentially better than last year’s implementation of blue. I hope teams can follow suit in bringing back exciting livery design. Yes, the classics work because they have simple lines and are not over the top, but there is so much room between simplicity and over the top that I believe this car fits into. I may even, in time put the Mercedes into this bracket, but it’s sort of become a classic in its own right, and not just because of its recent success. It’s ironic that most of the grid has become Dennis-esque in dulling down a bit to favour sponsors, yet his former team are becoming bolder season upon season.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect Ron Dennis for his impact on the sport, and how he developed McLaren into the dominant force it once was, I just feel he’s left a bitter taste in our mouths with dragging Honda back into F1, creating dull liveries and completely misreading the direction of the sport. He is and always will be one of F1’s legends.

Just a quick note about the launch in general, did they pretty much listen to what I said yesterday?! 20 minute launch, and 5 minutes of which didn’t have the car under wraps. I’ll cut them some slack with having the team members at the forefront, which was a unique experience for a launch. It was also nice to have new, nicer romper suits and two drivers in them who already seem to have a good rapport, which is further change from Alonso and Vandoorne where for me the impression was they just didn’t click. Then again, Alonso does love his psychological warfare.

New Blood

All new line up at McLaren. First point of interest is Carlos Sainz Jr. Will he finally settle in and be comfortable leading a team for the first time? At Renault, we learned that once he settles in, he’s got some good pace. He certainly put pressure on Verstappen whilst at Toro Rosso and put in an impressive performance at Abu Dhabi last season. Considering the awkward start to 2018 with Renault, he pulled back and was on level terms with Hülkenberg for most of the season, and actually made more Q3 appearances than his team mate. I think it does show that there is talent there, but it’s whether he can take it all the way, lest he become the new Hülkenberg.

Lando Norris is hotly described as Britain’s next hot thing. McLaren have the faith in him, which is either a blessing or a curse, ask Lewis Hamilton or Stoffel Vandoorne. He had a strong year in F2 last year, he certainly matched George Russell, in a car that worked arguably less effectively in the hands of Carlin. Inexperience is what cost him the title, both on the team’s part and himself. Qualifying was not strong for him, although it is difficult to know where the blame lies for this. Silly stalls is what the main blame will be, but this was soon fixed by the second half. However, he has proven to be a confident passer of cars, see Abu Dhabi for example, and the F2 cars were notoriously difficult to get off the line; he wasn’t the only one to stall the car. Time will tell is he is the next Lewis Hamilton or Stoffel Vandoorne, but he certainly has to push Carlos, and show he’s Britain’s next top dog.

Now where do we place McLaren? They have to show another year on the up. They need to be the next Renault, or it will become increasingly hard to break free of midfield mediocrity. The last remnant of them being a ‘big team’, Fernando Alonso, has left them. Do they still deserve this status of sleeping giant? I have no doubts that 4^th place is the ultimate aim for this season, but if Renault have formed their own private club in between the top and midfield, as I have predicted they’ll snatch the 5^th place out of your hand. More points and competitiveness is the goal, because they did not have the 6^th fastest car last year as the standings may suggest.