Issue 6 - 2013

MCLAREN: THE NEW FERRARI?
By Chris Cassingham - @CCassingham
Such is the way of Formula One, any team's prospects at
the beginning of the season are entirely impossible to predict.
You may start out in the back of the midfield and
end up fighting for the championship, or you may start
out with a dominant car and see your championship
hopes fizzle out three rounds before the season's end.
However, there is even the chance that you may dominate
the whole season and wrap up the championship before
the last flyaway races, or you may find that your chances
are nowhere at the beginning and the end. Such is the
way of Formula One; nothing is for certain.
Had you asked the big wigs at Ferrari at the end of 2012
testing where they expected they would be fighting, you
would have gotten a few mumbles about how things
weren't as they wanted at the moment, but they were confident
of improvements throughout the season. After the
first practice session in Australia last year, Ferrari's concerns
were magnified. Driving for survival was the only
way to go.
Much to the shock of the paddock, through relentless
determination and sheer, dogged desire for success, Ferrari
helped Fernando Alonso stay in title contention until
the very last lap of the season finale. Feats of this caliber
come only a few times in an F1 generation, and while
2013 looks to be a much better season for the Maranello
squad, prospects are not so positive for Mclaren.
It seems the lads at Woking are taking the performance
hit they expected at the beginning of the season a bit
harder than they, and of course the fans, expected. In a
time where evolution was the path of many others,
Mclaren's relatively radical car design has out them on
the back foot in terms of performance. The rationale
behind such a deviation from their previous design was
that they would have more room for development at the
end of the season. The possibility of hitting a
performance ceiling before season's end was of real
concern to everyone at Mclaren, thus their design took on
a more revolutionary scope in a bid to give the team more
season-long potential. Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari may
wish they had done the same come the end of the season.
This weekend, Jenson Button has revealed that
throughout testing Mclaren was unable to compete with
the times set by the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes, Lotus
and Mclaren. Gone are the days where drivers and teams
could hide behind phrases like "it is too early to tell" or
"we don't know what fuel levels the others are running".
Testing is over and now it is time to show what you really
have up your sleeve.
All conclusions from the first two practice sessions in
Australia point to a Mclaren that is off the pace
significantly. Worrying parallels can be drawn to the
woes Ferrari dealt with at this same point last year. Both
Jenson Button and Sergio Perez finished practice outside
the top ten, and with time and track time at an absolute
premium, there is not a realistic chance of the team
making up enough laptime to fight for the win.
More specifically, Mclaren's problems can be traced to
the car's new pull-rod front suspension. Without getting
too technical, what having pull-rod suspension does is
move the intricate mechanical components deep down inside
the body of the car, making any adjustment to the system
a long and drawn-out process. As a result, the drivers
don't get as much time on track, reducing the amount of
information gathered, thus increasing the chances of needing
to spend even more time in the garage making even
more slow adjustments. It is a painful cycle that Ferrari
found a struggle to break.
Unlike Ferrari, however, Mclaren is renowned for developing
a car over the course of a season. While Ferrari is no
technical slouch, there is no denying the
Woking squad's ability to make simulator and wind-tunnel
data correlate very well in the real world. The upgrade
brought to Germany in the middle of 2012 is a testament
to Mclaren's ability to turn the performance of a car
around when absolutely necessary. After this update,
Mclaren won the next three races in succession, should
have won the Singapore and Abu Dhabi GP's and finally
won again in Austin and Brazil. At a time when Red Bull
was supposedly dominating the championship, Mclaren
had the fastest car. Ferrari's ability to keep the F2012
competitive against the likes of Red Bull as well will give
Mclaren hope that they can do even better this year.
The balance between priorities will be the hot topic of
2013. Each and every team has to develop their 2013 cars
to ensure they get the championship (and money) they
need at the end of the season, while also pouring resources
into their 2014 designs, which by all accounts, could just
put a couple teams out of business completely. While Red
Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and even Mercedes could be fighting it
out at the front of the grid in the first half of the season,
Mclaren will be slowly but steadily chipping away at any
deficiencies in their car, until it is championship worthy.
The mandatory factory shut-down during the summer
break could hurt those teams that are nearing the dreaded
"performance ceiling". While they struggle to come up
with updates and balance 2014 development, Mclaren
could be perfectly poised to pounce on the situation. They
will already have updates planned throughout the whole
season. Theirs should be more effective given the car's
all-important "potential" and that means they could really
surprise.
Looking to the rest of the season, it is obviously too early
to draw any conclusions about who will be the world
champion, or who will even win the first race. What we
know for certain, though, is that Mclaren are set to struggle
at this first race at least. The team will have to lean on
their famous ability to out-develop their rivals if they are
to have a go for the championship. Such is the way of Formula
One, however, they may not get a chance at all.
Check Out Chris Cassingham’s Blog
http://itsanf1life.com