Rousing speeches cannot disguise plight of once-mighty McLaren
THE new boss called what he described as “the best race team in Formula One” together for a Churchillian backs-to-the-wall speech before the start of hostilities at the first race of the season.
But the “best race team” did not need fine words to tell them what they already knew and was quickly underlined in black and white on the timesheets after practice for the Australian Grand Prix today: Fernando Alonso, twice a world champion, was twelfth and more than two seconds off the pace.
Stoffel Vandoorne, his new teammate, was a lowly 17th.
The effort by McLaren director Zak Brown at his first race in charge to pep up any low spirits probably fell on deaf ears and the man who matters most was not even listening.
Alonso, who many believe is still the best driver in F1, will not be easily talked round — and another day like this will strengthen his determination to walk away from his £20million-ayear contract after two already wasted seasons with the once allconquering team from Woking.
Friends say the Spaniard is already touting himself around the paddock and is prepared to jump ship midseason if there is no improvement. The cost is not just to pride but the bottom line: McLaren have been without a title sponsor since 2014 and the money men are hardly likely to flock to a team languishing near the bottom of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton, the favourite to win in Australia, said before practice that he would love to see Alonso, his team-mate at McLaren in 2007 when they fought each other for the championship, return to the front of the grid. Some hope, for Alonso is driving Formula One’s equivalent of a lame horse.
Not since Melbourne in 2014 have McLaren even been near the podium, such is the depth of the crisis since joining forces with Honda as their engine supplier.
Two years of diplomatic silence over the Japanese firm’s hopeless engines is over and there is now open warfare in the McLaren garage. The team are at their lowest ebb and, barring a miracle, Honda are simply incapable of making an engine to put them on the pace this season — or even next, given the rate of progress.
But McLaren face a rock and a hard place: Honda have promised to invest more than £1billion into their Formula One project over a decade — and the team has no sponsor with anything like that money. Do they like it and lump it or does this potentially turbulent season mark the moment when McLaren cut and run for the sake of their reputation?