A lot of people scoffed at the appointment of Zak Brown to replace Ron Dennis as McLaren team boss. What does a marketing guy know about F1? was a common criticism. After a dismal start to the 2017 F1 season and Honda seemingly further behind than ever, those same critics smelled blood in the water. Somewhat…
Tag: McLaren Honda
IndyCar: If Rossi can do it…Alonso’s mission improbable
Fernando Alonso’s 2017 Indy 500 bid has been the talk of the IndyCar paddock for a couple of weeks. Now that the initial excitement and surprise has subsided – slightly – attention turned to the magnitude of the task at hand. But are people grossly underestimating the chances of the 2-time F1 World Champion becoming…
Alonso seeks legendary status with Indy 500 bid
No one saw this move by Fernando Alonso coming. Much like one of his overtakes in F1, the McLaren star did something that left the motorsport world almost speechless and asking: did he just do that? The double F1 World champion will compete at the 101st Indianapolis 500 for Andretti Autosport. With backing and the blessing of Honda…
Ferrari & Bottas just limited Alonso’s F1 options
Fernando Alonso’s Australian Grand Prix weekend was bad enough thanks to continuing failings by Honda. But the resurgence of Ferrari and the performance of Valterri Bottas made things even worse. The great McLaren Honda project version 2.0 is a disaster. Even with the kind of progress Honda made in 2016 – which was very impressive…
McLaren needs to dump Honda
With only one test remaining before the 2017 F1 season opener in Melbourne, the McLaren-Honda partnership finds itself in a familiar position. Following significant progress made in 2016 a radical re-design of Honda’s hybrid power unit (PU) appears to have left the team with significant ground to make up once more. Deja vu for McLaren Honda Drawing conclusions…
F1 2017 pre-season test 1 review
The first F1 pre-season test of 2017 in Barcelona gave us a chance to see the new era of F1. Wider cars, more aerodynamics and giant tyres saw lap times tumble in Spain. So what did we learn ahead of the 2017 F1 season? Mercedes AMG Make no mistake, the regulation changes for 2017 have…
F1: What do Mercedes mean by a ‘brave’ decision?
Toto Wolff was quoted this week saying that the Mercedes F1 team are prepared to make a ‘brave’ decision on Nico Rosberg’s replacement. What that means is open to interpretation and could end up with a surprising end result. Mercedes want to be in a position to secure a fourth successive drivers and constructors world…
F1: 2017 F1 driver market update
The Italian Grand Prix weekend was massive for the F1 driver market as Felipe Massa and Jenson Button announced their respective decisions to retire and take an F1 sabbatical. The announcements left at least one seat free at Williams and confirmed the long-anticipated promotion of GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne to F1. But plenty of pieces…
F1: German Grand Prix ‘heroes and zeroes’ 2016
As decisions by the race stewards once again took centre stage, I rate the heroes and zeroes from a pretty dull 2016 German Grand Prix. German Grand Prix heroes 2016 Hero – Lewis Hamilton Hamilton was not pressed on Sunday afternoon. After his teammate Nico Rosberg gifted him the lead off the line, Hamilton simply…
F1: Hungarian Grand Prix ‘heroes and zeroes’ 2016
A look at the stars and villains from the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix – a race that turned out pretty dull after a thrilling, 2-hour qualifying session. Hungarian Grand Prix heroes 2016 Hero – Lewis Hamilton Should he have had pole on Saturday? Yes Did he command the race from lights to flag? Yes Did…
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