The French Grand Prix held at the weekend was a great one for Mercedes but not so hot for McLaren. For the third consecutive race they failed to notch up any points so just what is going wrong with the team?
Ups and Downs for Alonso
The previous weekend had seen Fernando Alonso win the Le Mans 24 race but his return to F1 at the weekend was nowhere near so successful. The McLaren team had a disappointing weekend right from the practice sessions held on Friday. Both Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were putting up times that were well off the pace and it was a trend that carried on in qualifying and the race itself.
After the problems of last season that were largely blamed on their Honda engine and that led to a parting of the ways. With a Renault engine in place for this season, McLaren were confident of a much better season, but it hasn’t worked out that way and their two drivers have only managed 40 points between them in 2018.
Reliability problems caused retirements for Alonso in both the Monaco and Canadian races. In France though, both McLaren’s went out in Q1 and whereas Vandoorne managed to finish 12th, Alonso again had to retire from the race due to suspension problems with his McLaren though being delayed by a crash at the first corner didn’t help him one little bit as he spent most of the race at the back of the field.
Unrealistic Targets
During the race, Alonso was on his radio complaining “no brakes, no tyres and we are out of the points”, so he wasn’t exactly enjoying himself. He also felt that his team were focusing on unrealistic positions as they kept telling him how close he was to the cars in fifth and sixth place which weren’t really on his mind considering the problems with his car and having just one set of tyres.
The Spanish driver admitted that the weekend had been the worst performance of the year but added that he’s confident the situation will get better for the next race in Austria saying: “I really hope it is a one-off and not the normality.”
Improvement Needed Fast
Time is running out though with the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend and the British Grand Prix the week after that. “We need to find solutions” said Alonso. He does see some hope as the McLaren was running faster during the race than in the disappointing qualifying session. He commented: ““We’re lacking just general pace. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the balance of the car, it’s just the pace at the moment is not strong enough.”
All of which makes you wonder whether Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo would really consider joining McLaren next season. He’s out of contract at the end of the year and talks with McLaren have taken place, but would he swap racing for a team for which he has won races for one that struggles to get on the podium?
