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No miracles awaiting McLaren's "extremely poor" car

Published on 10 Sep 2018 14:53
4
By: Fergal Walsh

McLaren is not expecting any miracles to come its way in the final seven races of the 2018 season. Team CEO Zak Brown says that the team is running with an "extremely poor" racecar, as it has struggled throughout the 2018 season.

The Woking squad scored most of its points in the opening four races of the year. However, following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso has picked up four P8 finishes, while Stoffel Vandoorne has failed to finish inside the top ten.

When questioned by Autosport if it can turn its season around in the remaining races, Brown said: "We'll continue to push on this car but unfortunately we've produced an extremely poor racecar that is not that responsive to changes, which will tell you that inherently we don't have a good racecar.

"I would expect, unfortunately, similar type of results - maybe a little more circuit-specific - over the balance of the year. I certainly wouldn't expect any miracles," the American added.

While originally in the fight for fourth place in the constructor's standings, it has since fallen away from Haas and Renault. It now sits in sixth place in the constructor's standings, having gained a place due to the exclusion of Force India prior to Belgium.

Brown admits that McLaren's rivals have simply out-developed them: "Other teams have developed at a faster pace than ourselves. It appears we've gone backwards. In reality, everyone else has gone forwards, but in Formula 1 if you're not going forwards you're going backwards.

"We knew Spa and Monza-type circuits would be our absolute weak points in the car, which are proving to be the case. We're not giving up on developing because we're identifying the issues and want to see if we're able to solve them."

F1 News Fernando Alonso Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Force India Renault

Replies (4)

ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
McLaren are going to look quite silly if they don't manage something decent this weekend. Last year with the Honda engine they managed 8 and 9th in qualifying. Vandoorne finished 7th. Alonso would have been third by the end of the first lap if he didn't get taken out by Max (or was is Raikkonen?). I get that last year's chassis was clearly better and that adding Renault to the mix triggered re-calibrations in their design. But still, it will simply look pathetic if they are at the back again in Singapore.
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- Sep 10 2018 - 20:15
- boudy
  
  Posts: 1,168
  Not sure of the stats but are McLaren worse now than last year? That start last year; a fast starting Raikkonen; squeeze of Vettel; Lucky Hamilton;Unlucky Verstappen and even Unluckier Alonso.
  
  McLaren are in so much trouble ..
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  Sep 11 2018 - 07:32
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
McLaren is currently as miserable to look at as the Swedish election.
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- Sep 10 2018 - 22:13
f1ski

Posts: 726
Williams made the same comments and are heading in the right direction .
Mclaren probably feel that the comment will turn their fortunes around
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- Sep 11 2018 - 00:33