McLaren-Renault 2019

[Borko]

Srecno nam bilo i puno znanja tehnickoj ekipi tima do kraja sezone...

[Radoye]

😀

[Borko]

Jolyon Palmer column: How McLaren are showing Renault the way in Formula 1's midfield fight

By Jolyon PalmerFormer Renault driver & BBC Radio 5 Live commentator

 

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, who left Renault during the 2017 season, is part of the BBC team and offers insight and analysis from the point of view of the competitor.

Behind the fight at the front between the big three teams, McLaren are arguably the story of the new Formula 1 season.

They had a torrid time last year, and faced a lot of criticism for underperforming woefully despite having a star driver in Fernando Alonso and a budget bigger than many of their midfield rivals.

Aside from poor performance, what hurt McLaren the most was that they had gone into the season making bold claims about what they could achieve after dumping Honda engines and switching to Renault.

In 2019, that has all changed - the expectation and the performance.

 

Alonso exited F1 at the end of last season , leaving McLaren with Carlos Sainz and rookie Lando Norris. And for the first time since I can remember, McLaren came into the season playing down expectations.

But after four races, they lead the best of the rest 'Class B' fight - sitting behind only Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull - having picked up a strong double-points finish in Baku last weekend.

Norris has hit the ground running, showing strong pace and, as yet, few rookie errors, while Sainz has had more misfortune but is showing well as the inherent lead driver in the team.

And it could have been better still.

Contact with Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat effectively ruled both drivers out of the Chinese Grand Prix on lap one.

Sainz's Renault engine let go in Melbourne to rule him out of a result there and he lost out on a good haul of points in Bahrain after contact while trying to pass the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

There is room for improvement and refinement for the team yet, but they have made a big step in the right direction and there's all the groundwork for a very strong year.

 

 

What's up with Renault

The baton of 'most disappointing midfield runner' has been passed by McLaren to the factory Renault team.

And nobody will be more disappointed than their star driver Daniel Ricciardo.

The big-money winter signing from Red Bullcame into the season with huge hopes and a lot of attention.

At race one in Melbourne, the city was pretty much solidly yellow with Renault merchandise in support of the Aussie. The backing he had was enormous, but the fans saw their man fail to make the top 10 qualifying shootout and effectively retire from the race within metres of the start.

Four races later, it feels as though Ricciardo is almost a forgotten man in Formula 1 now.

Renault's 29-year-old driver is such a likeable, larger-than-life character, but he is pretty anonymous in the ultra-tight midfield.

In Baku, he was most notable for an overzealous move on Kvyat, which turned into a clumsy episode as he reversed into his rival in the run-off area of Turn Three to take them both out of the race.

But the criticism doesn't lie with Ricciardo. In fact, after a slightly underwhelming start, he has been driving pretty well. He outperformed Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg solidly through the Baku weekend and scored a very good seventh place in China, despite lacking race pace compared with his rivals behind.

 

Hulkenberg is still grossly underrated. He takes an easy jab because of the fact that he's never stood on an F1 podium, but he's been performing at the highest level in midfield cars for years.

I was his team-mate in 2017 and I know exactly how good he is. If he got himself into a top car, he would certainly be good enough to fight for a title.

Drivers are not Renault's problem. It's the car, which is lacking in both pace and reliability.

Unbelievably, they have the second slowest average qualifying pace in the field so far, ahead of only Williams, who have all sorts of problems of their own.

Admittedly, it is very close, with just over 0.3 seconds separating their car - the ninth-fastest - from Haas, the fourth-quickest, and there are some extenuating circumstances.

But Renault have made third qualifying in only one race out of the four so far - in China, where both cars edged to the front of the midfield.

In Baku, Ricciardo picked up a big slipstream at the end of first qualifying to just nudge himself out of the drop zone by 0.1secs. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg spent the entire weekend way off the pace, ahead of only the Williams, saying he was missing "love and harmony" with his car.

Qualifying pace isn't Renault's only concern, though. Reliability has been very weak as well in the opening stages of the season.

Both cars retired with engine failures in Bahrain when in positions to score points. Hulkenberg lost a chance of points in China as well with another engine issue.

Further problems with both cars in qualifying in Bahrain, and for Hulkenberg in Australia, have hampered progress as well and left them with a lot of work to do on race day.

Renault lie seventh in the standings and still have every possibility of ending up fourth in the constructors' championship if they can find some pace and reliability in their car.

But for a team who began the season hoping to close the gap to the top teams it has been a dismal start.

McLaren, running the same engine as Renault, are showing them the way at the moment, but are also demonstrating that it isn't just the Renault engine that is holding the works team back. The chassis is clearly seriously underdeveloped.

[Radoye]

Tumbanje u timu:

 

Quote

...the number four in McLaren – Chief Operating Officer Simon Roberts – is leaving the team he has been with for 15 years. One presumes that Roberts has another job to go to, but it is still a fairly major change at McLaren, where he has long been one of the pillars of the team. A pretty heavy-hitter in the car industry in his youth, working as head of divisions at Rover and at BMW after the British firm was taken over by the Germans, Roberts has been at McLaren ever since, apart from a stint at Force India when the team was a major McLaren customer and Simon was seconded to Silverstone to make sure things ran smoothly. Also leaving Woking is Dave Probyn, a management consultant who has a background in quality control, but who has been with the team for two years, using the title “Operations Director”. His background was at Toyota, where he spent 10 years before working for five years with Mercedes in various F1 roles.

 

[Borko]

Ovo je fenomenalna vest. 🙂Dovidjenja Sajmone, hvala ni na cemu. 

[Borko]

To bi bilo to. Nakok katastrofe koja je nastala odlaskom Pedija Loua u Mercedes u januaru 2013, Sajmon Roberts je bio poslednji od grobara tima koji je ostao u timu. Tim Gos, Met Moris, Erik Bulije i sada napokon Sajmon Roberts. Cetvorka koja je unistila Meklaren.

 

Dzejms Ki, Andrea Stela, Pet Fraj i Piter Prodromou su sada vodeci tehnicki ljudi Meklarena. Zadovoljan sam, stvarno. Bravo za Zeka.

[Radoye]

https://www.racefans.net/2019/05/10/analysis-mclaren-reveals-f1s-biggest-update-of-2019-so-far/

 

Za sada mi se ne cini da smo napravili neki veliki pomak, ali hajde da sacekamo nedelju pa da sudimo...

[Radoye]

Bas nas krenulo zadnjih dana...

 

Quote

McLaren looks set to lose a major sponsor.
 

The Brazilian state run oil company Petrobras signed a five-year, $200 million deal with the Woking based team last year.
 

But a new Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, was sworn in this year, and he has announced that the McLaren-Petrobras collaboration will end.
 

"At the moment, by decision of my government, Petrobras seeks a way to terminate the contract," Bolsonaro said.
 

Globo reports that a government envoy was at McLaren's UK headquarters last week to negotiate the termination.
 

It is bad news all round for McLaren, with Fernando Alonso failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 over the weekend in the new McLaren entry.
 

McLaren boss Zak Brown said: "Our contract with Fernando goes beyond the Indianapolis 500."
 

Brown said he is confident the famous F1 team will eventually return to the top step of the podium.
 

"As a team we are doing much better than before. I think we will win again in a window of two to ten years," he said.
 

But at approaching the age of 38, Alonso is unlikely to be at the wheel for that.
 

Sky Italia quoted an unnamed insider who said the Spaniard wanted to switch to a faster team rather than quit F1 at the end of last year.
 

"He offered himself for free," the insider is quoted as saying.

 

[alberto.ascari]

1 hour ago, Radoye said:

Bas nas krenulo zadnjih dana...

 

Sky Italia quoted an unnamed insider who said the Spaniard wanted to switch to a faster team rather than quit F1 at the end of last year.
 

"He offered himself for free," the insider is quoted as saying.

 

 

Karma je kurva, ko bi ga hteo...

[Borko]

Karlos monstrouzno brzi od Lenda. I tako je realno od prve trke. Maaalo pocininjem da budem razocaran u Norisa.

[Radoye]

Lando lose startuje, u svakoj trci je izgubio po nekoliko mesta na startu. Posle mu to dalje diktira razvoj situacije, ili se cukne s nekim ili zaglavi iza nekog. Mora to da popravi.

[Borko]

Svejedno. Karlos je brzi i u kvalifikacijama. I imao je dva teska malera u prve dve trke. Seti se da je preticao Ferstapena za peto mesto u 6. krugu u Bahreinu dok se ovaj nije skucao u njega.

 

Edited May 26, 2019 by 4_Webber

[Radoye]

Ma znam. Mislim da su tu negde po brzini, iskustvo je naravno na Sainsovoj strani pa on uspe tu brzinu i da iskoristi, usput Lando jos uspe bas svaki put i da se upuca u nogu. Daj klincu vremena, ipak mu je ovo samu 6. trka u karijeri. Makar dve sezone k'o Stofu, pa ako dotle ne proradi lako cemo ga zameniti.

[Borko]

Ja sam se zapravo nadao da smo se sa njim dobili vozaca za sledecih 10 godina. 

 

Ali sada je jasno da smo sve u svemu 4. najbolji tim.

[Romantik]

3 hours ago, Radoye said:

Lando lose startuje, u svakoj trci je izgubio po nekoliko mesta na startu. Posle mu to dalje diktira razvoj situacije, ili se cukne s nekim ili zaglavi iza nekog. Mora to da popravi.

 

Generalno ovo stoji, ali to nije bio slucaj danas. Sad je samo pitanje da li je bio zaista ovoliko sporiji ili je dobio zadatak od Meklarena da blokira sve iza, posto je najvise zahvaljujuci tom njegovom cepu Sainc, a i svi ostali u prvih 10 koji nisu menjali gume pod SC i ostali u prvih 10.

[Borko]

Lando Norris takes issue with Lewis Hamilton's comments on young F1 drivers

 

Lando Norris, McLaren’s 19-year-old rookie, did not disguise his irritation on Thursday at being told by Lewis Hamilton that Formula One should be a “man’s sport”.

Ahead of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, the five-time world champion argued that the highest level of motorsport needed to be more strenuous, to prevent youngsters from adapting to its demands with such ease.

Clearly, the comment cut little ice with Norris, the youngest British driver in F1 history. “I don’t know why he would say it now, and not when he first started,” he said, taking the remark as a slight against him and fellow British debutants George Russell and Alex Albon. “It must be targeted at me, George and Alex, because we’re the youngest in F1 and I’m not suffering perhaps as much as he thinks I should.

“I don’t think it’s intimidation, I just don’t know why he wouldn’t say it any other year. It’s much harder now than when he started in F1. He says he likes heavier steering. Well, he can ask his team to turn down the power steering if he wants. Like him, I think it would be cool to have manual gearboxes, too. So, I’m not sure what his reasoning is behind it.”

 

There has never been much sign of closeness between the pair. Indeed, at one point in the press conference here in Montreal, Hamilton said to Norris: “I’m just wondering, how old are you? Nineteen? Shoot.” But this was the first time Norris had taken such umbrage at the elder statesman.

 

It marks the second time in three races that Hamilton has railed against the relative lack of physical exertion in modern F1. In Spain, where he led a processional race for 66 laps, he lamented: “You should be massively depleted afterwards. Instead, an 18-year-old can jump into F1 and have no problems.”

 

On balance, Hamilton had a point, with Norris conceding on Thursday that he did not even go to the gym, instead restricting himself largely to neck exercises. “I don’t like going to the gym,” he said. “My biggest focus is the neck and endurance. I wear this ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ harness, with a resistance trainer pulling against it.”

Hamilton was 22 when he completed his first race for McLaren in 2007 and times have clearly changed, with Norris part of a growing breed of drivers who see real racing almost an extension of their simulator work.

[Radoye]

Pa ono, Hamilton uvek moze u Indikar ako nece servo volane, nabudzene menjace i FBW gas i kocnice. Mehanika bato! 😉

 

[Borko]

Nerealno vreme Karlosa na FP2. Necu da podizem nade da moze da uzme sedmo mesto i da napokon, prvi put posle skoro pet godina, na cistu brzinu budemo best of the rest.

 

edit: u kvalifikacijama naravno

Edited June 7, 2019 by Borko

[Radoye]

Spremamo nesto takticki za trku, u FP1 Lando je vozio samo jedan stint od 33 kruga na tvrdim gumama i imao sasvim solidno vreme. Izgleda da smo istinski brzi ovde.

[Romantik]

Sainc je vozio nesto kasnije od ostalih, a staza ovde rapidno napreduje, tako da je vreme usled toga dosta bolje, mada realno je u igrzi za sedmo mesto sa Magnusenom i Perezom. Cenim da Renoi malo zaostaju.

[Borko]

5 hours ago, Radoye said:

Spremamo nesto takticki za trku, u FP1 Lando je vozio samo jedan stint od 33 kruga na tvrdim gumama i imao sasvim solidno vreme. Izgleda da smo istinski brzi ovde.

Neko moje zapazanje vec godinama je da onaj ko je dobar u Bahreinu obicno je dobar i u Kanadi. A za nas je staza u Bahreinu bila daleko najbolja ove sezone.

[Radoye]

Obe staze su poprilicno prasnjave, Bahrein zbog peska iz pustinje Montreal zato sto nije cak ni ulica nego park pa se cele godine jedva dva automobila tuda provoza van F1 vikenda.

[Borko]

MEKLAREN!!!!

[Radoye]

1 minute ago, Borko said:

MEKLAREN!!!!

 

Samo sutra Maks da ne napravi neko sranje dok ga Lando i Karlos preticu 😄 😛

[Borko]

Nadam se da ti je jasno zasto zaostajemo 9 hiljadinitki? Jer je Hondin motor boji od Renoovog