Friday 27 February 2015

Exclusivity or Stupidity?

McLaren and Honda announced back in May 2013 that they would reignite their evocative collaboration in time for this season. Crucially, the Woking-based team would have exclusive use of the engine in 2015 - an excellent marketing move and, hopefully, a winning move. After all, in what has become an engine-formula, if no-one else has your engine and it’s the best one, who’s gonna stop you?
A rare on-track sighting of a McLaren this winter
Source: McLaren
Honda had almost two years to fully focus and develop their ‘V6-era’ power unit. They had the benefit of seeing what Mercedes did to get that crucial edge over Ferrari and Renault. I’m not saying that Honda should have been considered nailed-on 2015 title favourites but race wins? Definitely. Of course, that could still happen. Winter testing is precisely just for that - testing - and you only have to look at how Red Bull overcame their woes 12 months ago to send Daniel Ricciardo to the top of the podium on three occasions last season to demonstrate that testing times are meaningless - indeed, why anyone except Autosport live tweets lap times from testing is beyond me.

What isn’t meaningless is the data gained from Jerez and Barcelona (and Sakhir last year). Honda have gained a pitiful amount of mileage. Renault, for all their various problems last winter (Red Bull were late in their development stage, Toro Rosso had just switched from Ferrari and both Lotus and Caterham struggled with finance and development) had four teams to help gain and share data.

Honda 2015? Nothing of the sort.

Installation teething problems were always likely to be a problem for McLaren but you only have to see the following stat to understand that exclusivity may not have been the best idea…
Total distance run by power unit in the first Barcelona test:
1.     Mercedes 1,518 laps - 7,066km
2.     Renault 829 laps - 3,858km
3.     Ferrari 663 laps - 3,086km
4.     Honda 124 laps - 577km
*source: formula1.com

JB finally logged significant mileage on Day 10 (of 12) of winter testing
Source: McLaren
As a Formula 1 fan, it’s easy to say that McLaren should have bought out, or at least helped to a greater degree, Marussia/Manor. The fact is, as a mere fan, we simply don’t know what goes on behind the closed doors within the F1 paddock. More help is given between teams than we realise but there is still the fundamental ‘survival of the fittest’ attitude that plagues the paddock.

McLaren are a team that have always had an impeccable young driver programme: from the days of Nick Heidfeld in F3000, through to nurturing Lewis Hamilton, and to the current crop of Kevin Magnussen, Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries. It seems to make perfect sense for McLaren to operate Marussia and use it a junior team for Magnussen and Vandoorne. They only need to look at the runaway success of Minardi becoming Toro Rosso for proof. Honda would have a second team (again) and there would at least be the chance that, even when McLaren were stricken with mechanical woes, more data could be gained in testing.

Such a collaboration would have helped ease the doom and gloom that has surrounded Marussia for the last few months, and we continue to pray for the recovery of both Jules Bianchi and Michael Schumacher.
Kevin Magnussen could have found a home at Manor/Marussia...
Source: McLaren
Clearly, McLaren haven’t even had the opportunity to run their car at full power in these pre-season tests, so there is definitely reason for optimism. And Honda will be desperate for a Red Bull 2014-style recovery to help heal the wounds of having sold off their former works team… which has since gone on to win the 2009 and 2014 titles.
Fernando Alonso has had an eventful return to McLaren
Source: McLaren