4
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.
Norris: McLaren must look inward to close the gap to Mercedes
McLaren prepares for historic 1,000th Grand Prix milestone
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."
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
I. Hadjar
A. Antonelli
C. Leclerc
78 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (4)
Login to replyajpennypacker
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.
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 ..
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
McLaren is currently as miserable to look at as the Swedish election.
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