McLaren can’t take a trick in 2018

[Nergal]

 

MCLAREN’S below-par start to the F1 season continued at the Azerbaijan GP as the team endured their worst qualifying since switching to Renault power, with Stoffel Vandoorne eliminated in Q1.

Fernando Alonso was once again the lead McLaren on Saturday, but even the two-time world champion could only manage 13th — the third time in a row he has qualified in that position.

The performance heaps more stress on an under-pressure outfit who were targeting podiums at the beginning of the year but, while amassing points and sitting fourth in the constructors’ standings, have yet to make it into Q3’s top-10 shootout once this season.

“P13 for the third consecutive race so definitely we need to take a step forward,” admitted Alonso, with the Spaniard hopeful that major upgrades — expected at the next event in Spain — can help McLaren deliver on their pre-season promises.

As the disappointing results on-track persist, McLaren are also beginning to restructure off-track.

Zak Brown has already been confirmed as the team’s new F1 CEO, but Sky Sports also understands that Tim Goss has been removed from his position as chief technical officer.

Goss, who has worked for the Woking outfit since 1990, oversaw work on the new-for-2018 chassis, which the team hoped would see them compete with the similarly Renault-powered Red Bull but has instead seen them lapping around a second behind a team who have already won a race this season.

While Eric Boullier did not discuss Goss directly, he told reporters in Baku: “I can just confirm there is ongoing thinking, investigation and restructuring.

“But this is part of the life of a Formula 1 team and part of the evolution of the Formula 1 team.”

One of McLaren’s main issues at the Azerbaijan street circuit was a lack of straight-line speed — a problem they thought they would not encounter too frequently with a new Renault engine after three underwhelming years with Honda.

But by seeking to improve that, both Alonso and Vandoorne reported that the handling of the MCL33 was not up to scratch.

And Sky F1’s Paul di Resta, who competed in 59 grands prix for Force India and Williams, believes the sport’s 20-time world champions are on the midst of a 2018 “crisis”.

“It’s not going in a straight line, it’s not going around a corner, it’s just not happening,” said Di Resta. “You can see they’ve made some senior management changes, but it’s a kind of crisis I would say.

“They’ve got that Renault engine, they can be compared directly to Red Bull who are doing the goods this year, so the engine is there or thereabouts.

“I guess the shareholders were promised that they had the best car last year and it’s not really showing up.”

WILL RACE DAY AGAIN BE MCLAREN’S SAVING GRACE?

While the MCL33’s single-lap pace appears the car’s biggest single problem, the race-day performances of Alonso in particular have given McLaren some breathing space in terms of their constructors’ championship position.

The Spaniard finished ninth from the back row in a 2017 Baku race of myriad incidents — but Alonso does not believe he will need similar good fortune to score points again on this occasion.

“I don’t think we need to wait for something too crazy in front of us as last year,” said Alonso.

“I started last (in 2016) and scored two points here because the race was just crazy and you had to stay out of trouble. But tomorrow I start 12th and if you do a good start there are some cars in front of us with the ultrasoft who went in Q3, like the Renault cars and Force Indias, so quite quickly in the race we will be quite quickly in the points.

“So we don’t need anything crazy to score points. If there is something happening in front of us and we manage to stay out of those problems, it can be even bigger points. So let’s see, but it’s definitely a good opportunity to score points — and even better opportunity than previous races.”

Although he qualified 13th, Alonso will start one place higher in 12th courtesy of eighth-placed Nico Hulkenberg’s gearbox grid penalty.