Breaking news
Formula 1
McLaren expects no miracles with "extremely poor" 2018 car
McLaren is expecting its recent struggles to continue for the rest of the Formula 1 season because rivals have outdeveloped its "extremely poor" car.
Scott Mitchell Jonathan Noble
Published: Sep 10, 2018, 1:03 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Belgian and Italian Grands Prix have exposed McLaren's top-speed deficit to its rivals and it qualified slowest for each race as its terrible 2018 season reached a new low.
McLaren has not qualified inside the top 10 since Monaco and has only scored points in three of the last nine grands prix.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he thought McLaren could turn around its slump in form this year, team CEO Zak Brown said: "We'll continue to push on this car but unfortunately we've produced an extremely poor race car that is not that responsive to changes, which will tell you that inherently we don't have a good race car.
"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."
McLaren is sixth in the constructors' championship, having gained a place thanks to the exclusion of Force India and addition of Racing Point Force India as a new F1 entry.
However, McLaren has fallen away from Renault and Haas in the fight for fourth and is only 20 points clear of Racing Point Force India after just two races for the new team.
Fernando Alonso, who is stepping away from F1 at the end of 2018, said earlier this season that McLaren's only major upgrade has been in Spain.
A characteristic of its car has stopped McLaren from identifying problems on the windtunnel, which has hampered its attempts to improve.
Brown admitted: "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."
McLaren is trying to hire James Key as technical director but that bid is currently being thwarted by Red Bull not wishing to release him from his Toro Rosso contract.
Key will not have an impact on the 2019 McLaren and Brown believes the team must wait until 2020 to produce a car with its full technical capabilities.
"I'm very confident of the people we have inside McLaren, that we have a good plan," said Brown.
"The car is being developed as we speak. Ideally you would have James involved but this is going to take some time to rebuild the racing team.
"2019 should be an interim step forward and we probably won't be at our full capacity of technical capability until our 2020 car."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Sainz: Renault can match Mercedes, Ferrari engines in 2019
Next article Raikkonen to step down from Ferrari role after 2018
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Scott Mitchell
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Formula 1
Formula 1
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Formula 1
Formula 1
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
Formula 1
Formula 1
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
More from
McLaren
McLaren to use final 2026 developments to test 2027 F1 car concepts
Formula 1
Formula 1 13 h
McLaren to use final 2026 developments to test 2027 F1 car concepts
McLaren retains Leonardo Fornaroli in F1 as Italian adds WEC programme for 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1 18 h
McLaren retains Leonardo Fornaroli in F1 as Italian adds WEC programme for 2027
Latest news
Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 11 h
Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal
Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
12 h
Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix
Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 13 h
Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello
Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
13 h
Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe