639 replies to this topic

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Stoffel Vandoorne has vowed to "give everything" in the remaining races of 2018, even after being dropped by McLaren.

The Belgian was once a highly rated protege of the beleaguered British team, but he is being replaced by new McLaren rookie Lando Norris for 2019.

"Although I'm very much looking to the future since I confirmed I won't be racing for McLaren next season, I'm also 100% determined to give everything for the remaining races this season.

Both the team and I are pushing very hard to get the best results we can with what we have," Vandoorne said.

Not normally a controversial figure, Vandoorne has complained about the McLaren car recently, and especially its poor reliability.

But even team boss Zak Brown admits the 2018 machine is not good.

"We continue to push, but unfortunately we have built an extremely poor car that does not respond to changes.

Other teams developed better than us while we seem to have regressed. But we will not give up because we are identifying the problems we have and trying to solve them.

2019 must be an intermediate step but we probably will not have our full technical capacity until the 2020 car arrives," he is quoted by El Mundo Deportivo.

[romantik]

Vandorne opet presedio veci deo prvog treninga. Ajde sto smo spori, ali sto smo nepouzdani petkom to je neverovatno. Mislim da Vandorne nije imao vise od 5 trka u kojima nije presedio bar jedan slobodan trening.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Kazu cackali su nesto, isprobavali nove komponente, pa je vreme otislo na zamenu.

[L0shMi]

Zar RedBull-u ne bi bilo logično spakovati malog u Torro Roso na sezonu. I vidiš ima li šta od njega I koliko je raspad McL uticao na njega.

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk

[Duh sa sekirom]

Otkud ti to?
RB je hteo posle 4 trke da šutne Hartlija jer im navodno nije dovoljno dobar. Di će uzeti Vandorna posle 2 loše sezone. Jedini razlog da ga uzmu je isti iz kog je i Hartli zadržao mesto. Nemaju koga drugog dovoljno obećavajućeg. Ali onda tu je i Okon opcija.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Okona nece u RBR jer je jos uvek pod ugovorom sa Mercedesom, nece da razigravaju tudjeg vozaca. Inace od onog sto je trenutno na trzistu definitivno najatraktivniji je bas on sto se tice vozackog znanja i talenta. Fandorn je sa te strane cist sto mu daje prednost. Takodje je i Verlajn odnedavno cist, Mercedes je raskinuo ugovor sa njim. Obojica su bila nudjena Red Bulu. Problem ovde je kakvu poruku saljes klincima u tvom razvojnom programu - umesto obecane sanse u F1 ti si sve svoje razjurio po FE i kojegde a u F1 dovodis bivse Meklarenovce i Mercedesovce? RBR je suvise brzo potrosio celu jednu generaciju da bi progurali Maksa - Algersuari, Buemi, Vernj, Kvjat, Sains - i sad nemaju novog klinca u programu koji je spreman za F1.

[4_Webber]

Ovo nam je realno bila najbolja trka sezone. Apsolutno smo oduvali sve ostale timove van top3 tima. Jbt kakva vremena kada sam presrecan sedmim mestom

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Alonso je opet bio "savage" dok je davao intervjuu. Rekao je "Postalo je jako komplikovano u jednom momentu jer smo čekali da Grozni obavi pitstop no oni su bili prefokusirani na nas pa su ga prešli Hulkenberg i svi ostali. Kako klasično od njih!".

[4_Webber]

Van staze je odlepio, na stazi je i dalje besprekoran. Askari, je l mogu da te pit nesto kao navijaca Ferarija koji je objektivan a ne gotivis Alonsa.. Da li mislis da bi on uzeo titulu ove ili prosle godine da je vozio kod vas umesto Fetela?

[alberto.ascari]

Teško pitanje druže.

Od McL 2007. godine on nije bio ni blizu titule, osim kad je vozio pola trke iza Petrova, a tada nije uspeo.

Mada, u svojoj skoro duplo dužoj karijeri u odnosu na Vettela, napravio je u apsolutnom broju možda petinu njegovih grešaka.

Tako da, verovatno da.

Edited by alberto.ascari, 16 September 2018 - 17:46.

[Jurgen]

Prošle godine sigurno ne, a ove bi verovatno bio ispred Hamiltona u ovom trenutku.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

McLaren considers extreme set-up for Russian GP
 


By: Jonathan Noble


McLaren is considering running with a more extreme Monza-style set-up on its car at the Russian Grand Prix in a bid to help boost its straightline speed performance.

The team’s progress this year has been dented by a car that has more drag than its rivals, plus it has not been helped out by a gear ratio choice that is not ideal for long straights.

While the gear ratio issue cannot be sorted because teams are stuck with them for the season, McLaren still thinks it can boost its top speed through aerodynamic changes.

Following some encouraging results from a more aggressive set-up choice to reduce drag that was trialled in practice at the Italian Grand Prix, the team is ready to give it another run at Sochi.

Fernando Alonso said: “I think some of the ideas we tested in Monza where we improved on the Saturday were more for drag reduction, so will be implemented. Hopefully Russia will be the first opportunity to revisit those set-ups.”

Sporting director Gil de Ferran suggests a final decision on its plans for Russia have not been sorted, but says the success of the new setup in Italy means it likely it will be used

“I won’t get into details obviously,” said de Ferran when asked by Motorsport.com about the plans. “We always try to do the best we can and step forward.

“We’re trying to bring a little bit of aero developments every race but that’s not the only thing: we’re exploring different spaces.

“Like Fernando said, in Monza we decided to take a completely different direction and it worked well for that type of track, and maybe we’ll explore a similar direction again in Russia.”

He added: “The work hasn’t stopped. We’re full-on on next year’s car but we come into every weekend trying to do a little bit better, fight for points, and improve our position in the championship.”

Alonso is currently eighth in the drivers’ championship standings after his seventh-place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

RIP Fandorn

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Koliko nas je kostala proslogodisnja blamaza sa Hondom:
 

McLaren Racing Limited, the company charged with operating the group’s Formula 1 activities, posted a £13.2m loss last year, filed 2017 accounts show. The equivalent 2016 loss was £3.2m.

The company turned over £196.5m in 2017 versus £179.8 for the previous 12-month period, primarily from its F1 operation. Administrative expenses shot up from £54.9m to £70.7m, with headcount increasing from 675 to 706, although overall employee costs registered a negligible increase.

According to the filings, the employee split by department as at 31 December 2017 was: 354 heads in production, 260 responsible for design and engineering and 92 employees in administration.

Although not reported separately, McLaren’s share of Formula 1’s 2017 revenues is estimated at £75m (including £25m in historic championship bonuses), indicating that revenues from other sources were £108m, including £90m in sponsorship income. Honda, with whom McLaren acrimoniously split after last season, is though to have contributed at least £60m.

During the course of 2017, McLaren earmarked an unspecified number of historic cars for sale to collectors, and thus transferred assets worth £22m from its heritage division to sales inventory. The company anticipates selling these cars over the next two to three years.

As revealed by RaceFans in May this year, McLaren raised £200m by selling 800,000 shares to Nidala, a British Virgin Islands-based company owned by Canadian billionaire Michael Latifi, father of F2 driver Nicolas. McLaren recently confirmed to investors that the deal will be completed in three tranches: £100m already received followed by £50m by the end of this year and a further £50m during 2019.

Having split from Honda and signed a subsequent three-year customer engine supply deal with Renault, McLaren’s Strategic Reports states, “The company’s objective is to build and strengthen our relationship with Renault and win races in the near future.

“In order to achieve these aims our focus is to ensure we continue to attract and retain the best drivers, engineers and support staff, and provide sufficient funding to the racing programme to build a car that can challenge at the top of the sport.

McLaren’s 2019 confirmed driver line-up consists of Carlos Sainz Jnr and rookie Lando Norris.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Fernando Alonso said McLaren were “lacking ambition” after he again pushed for a chance to set the fastest lap of the race at the end of the Russian Grand Prix.

Alonso tried to set the fastest lap during the previous race in Singapore but lost it after Kevin Magnussen put on a fresh set of tyres at the end of the race.

The McLaren driver was out of contention for the points in Sochi and told his team “I don’t care” when told he had a chance to gain a position while running in 15th.

He later asked the team “What is the fastest lap?” and was told “it’s a 36.3.” Alonso, who made his sole pit stop early in the race, did not make a second pit stop and his best lap was over three seconds off that time.

After the race Alonso indicated he was disappointed not to have had the chance to set the fastest lap. “When you are P14, P15, I think it’s good for the team, it’s good for the guys that they are working flat out every day. Good for the sponsors, good for the partners.

“But we were lacking ambition I think today.”

Alonso pitted early because he had a spare set of soft tyres and was trying to prompt other drivers into pitting early as well and use their rubber more quickly.

“It was quite a lonely race,” he said. “We stopped in lap four, lap five, tried to undercut some people and force to pit early for everyone. All of them, they have only one yellow tyres, we have two. But today the yellow tyres performed the whole race with no issues.

“That didn’t came out as we expected. Overall I think we didn’t have the pace as we said before the race.”