MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE?
By year three of the big reunion, they should be recreating the era of Prost and Senna. Instead, these celebrated partners are on their knees – and their greatest asset, Fernando Alonso, is on the brink. Can it all still be saved?
For how much longer will the great matador
hold his patience, in the wake of such leaden disappointment? Honda’s woeful winter testing form signalled all too clearly that the two-time world champion and Mclaren are seemingly consigned to yet another season of midfield mediocrity. This reborn and once-glorious partnership is in its third year. Alonso should be challenging for that grail of a third title by now.
Instead, Mclaren’s hierarchy are walking on eggshells in the hope they can persuade him to stay beyond 2017, the final year of his contract. At this rate he might not make the end
of the season, never mind the next. He is a huge asset, still an F1 colossus at the age of 35, his winless streak dating back to 2013 an irrelevance in the context of the inferior machinery he has had to live with during the long years since.
But what is there to keep him at Mclaren? Honda’s hybridera V6 campaign has been little short of a shambles, and the dashing of high hopes that a Merc-style split turbo and compressor concept would change the sorry story in ’17 must make Alonso wonder whether the partnership is doomed. ‘Mission: Impossible’? It just might be.
FRIDAY 24 MARCH, MELBOURNE, FREE PRACTICE
As a new F1 era dawns, Mclaren get off to a brighter start than anyone could have hoped for. Alonso manages 37 laps and Vandoorne 47 over the two sessions, a total of 84 – and a vast improvement on pre-season tests dogged by unreliability. Alonso’s best time puts him 12th in the second session and he’s six tenths faster than his team-mate – but he’s still 2.3 seconds off Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark. You can’t have everything.
maintains executive director Zak Brown in the Albert Park paddock on Friday evening. “I’ve been to Japan twice since starting my new role. We’re in daily contact, we have a long-term contract, they are motivated to help get us to where we need to be.”
But rumours are rife: Mclaren have asked the question and approached Mercedes. Could they ‘rest’ Honda (for now, or even permanently) and switch to a Merc PU supply freed up by Manor Racing’s demise? Inconceivable, on face value. There are 100 million reasons to rule out such drastic action, plus a cast-iron ten-year contract to be bought off. Then there’s the technical challenge of a mid-season engine swap, far beyond the widening of a cockpit for broad-shouldered Nigel Mansell all those years ago. It would be eye-wateringly expensive – but without such action, will Alonso walk?
The tall order might be possible. On the money question, Mclaren are still without a title sponsor, but they could probably find the funds if push comes to (greater) shove. The team is part-owned by a country, after all, and a mightily rich one at that. Shareholder Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company is the financial arm of the kingdom, and perhaps Brown, still in his honeymoon period at the team and merely the inheritor of this mess rather than the perpetrator, has the gift-of-the-gab skills to make a convincing case to his paymasters.
In practical terms, such a switch would present a monumental engineering challenge, but standardised mounting points and minimum weights were introduced with this hybrid V6 formula. ‘Heavily revised’ would barely cover the description of a Merc-powered, B-spec MCL32 – but in theory it can be done.
Brown is careful with his words on Friday in Oz. “We’re very open with Honda, we’re working with Honda on this,” he says. “We’re working with them to be competitive as quickly as possible and then we’ll work towards the ultimate goal of winning the world championship.”
So how are Honda reacting to this nightmare? “They are increasing their resources – and it’s a well-financed programme,” says Brown. “They are working much more closely with us; it’s brought us closer together. They are openminded to solutions, so we’re powering through it together.”
Alonso is keeping the pressure on. A top 12 in practice is better than expected, but Fernando won’t settle for such meagre consolation. “Everybody is working day and night to improve the situation,” he says. “We brought a lot of new parts for the car here. But there are rule changes, a golden chance to catch Mercedes. It’s the third year in terms of the engine project, so we have to be much higher up. Last year we were fighting for Q3 regularly. In 50 per cent of the races we made it, and in the other 50 per cent we were very close, so not being in the top five or six this year is not a reaction at all.”
SATURDAY 25 MARCH, MELBOURNE, QUALIFYING
“Okay, Fernando, we are through to Q2,” says his race engineer, Mark Temple. “Now we just need some rain,” says an underwhelmed Alonso. He quits the fray at the end of the middle session in 13th, 0.3 seconds off tenth-placed Carlos Sainz. Vandoorne manages only one lap in Q1 after a fuel-flow problem and is 18th.
The Mercedes switch is still very much on the agenda on Saturday evening – at least as far as we, the media, are concerned. “Rumours are rumours,” stonewalls team manager Eric Boullier at Mclaren’s post-qualifying ‘meet the team’ session, while Honda F1 engine chief Yusuke Hasegawa appears to spend most of the occasion failing to understand what he’s being asked. It’s cringingly embarrassing.
Again, Alonso has the look of a man who’d rather be anywhere than stuck in front of us lot. Where’s his head at? “Well, as I said in testing I expect a big change in the team, a big reaction,” he says. “We will not be 13th all season – or I will not be 13th all season.”
His breaking point is surely approaching.
Let’s look beyond the current crisis
for a moment. Right now, there’s little evidence to suggest Honda have what it takes to provide Alonso with a race-winning engine, never mind a championship winner. But would a customer Mercedes engine be enough to save the season?
Beyond toughing it out with Honda, it’s the only solution – but not necessarily for the long term. “People can win races with a customer engine, but ultimately, to dominate, which is what our desire is, you probably need to be a works team,” reckons Zak Brown.
Then again, Red Bull won four titles on the trot as a Renault customer, and continue to thrive today with the same relationship. Why couldn’t Mclaren?
And consider for a moment Brawn GP back in 2009. Their late deal to run Mercedes V8s paid off in unimaginable fashion – with a little help from their infamously trick double diffuser – when they claimed a shock title double with Jenson Button. The team formerly under Honda’s ownership had been left high and dry when the underperforming Japanese manufacturer pulled the plug in the wake of the global financial crisis. It was Mclaren’s then-chief, Martin Whitmarsh, who triggered the idea that Brawn could run a Mercedes engine, in an admirably altruistic spirit.
The irony is, of course, that had he not stepped in, Brawn GP would never have existed, the team would have folded, Mercedes would have had nothing to buy at the end of that season – and Mclaren might have retained their status as the three-pointed star’s works entry. Had the relationship lasted, the three titles in the hybrid V6 era could have been theirs… Sliding doors. Back in this universe, an alternative manufacturer deal is out of the question right now, because in the framework of the current rules no one else wants to know. BMW, Audi, Toyota… they have no interest in spending the sums it would require to
“WE I EXPECT A BIG CHANGE IN THE TEAM, A BIG REACTION. WILL NOT BE 13TH ALL SEASON – OR I WILL NOT BE 13TH ALL SEASO”N
develop a programme. And anyway, there would be little point in starting again now: yet another new engine formula is on the horizon, from 2021. In the wake of the Australian GP, Ross Brawn, in his new role as FOM’S sporting MD, was due to meet with manufacturers to discuss requirements for the next generation of F1 engine. “What the future power unit looks like is right at the top of the agenda for Liberty,” suggests Brown.
Earlier in the day, Brawn had pointed out that as much as the current engines are “fantastic pieces of engineering” they are “very expensive and complicated”. Budget caps are on his agenda and he faces the considerable challenge of drawing up a more sustainable power formula that will offer the performance of a real racing engine, but also attract the interest of the world’s car manufacturers.
A new partnership forged by Brown would let him stamp his mark on Mclaren. But perhaps he could take it a step further. Rather than Mclaren-bmw or Mclaren-audi, how about Mclaren-mclaren? Britain’s Ferrari. That has to be the ambition for a company responsible for creating a truly fantastic range of road cars over the past decade. A Mclaren 720S is just as desirable – perhaps even more so – than a Ferrari 488. Who would have believed that after the false start of the MP4-12C back in 2009? The success of Mclaren Automotive is a phenomenal achievement and one that outstrips the F1 team in pretty much every way.
In that context, you might even question whether Mclaren needs F1 to thrive. Can we imagine the company without F1 at its heart? The answer has to be a resounding no. As is the case with Ferrari, it’s inconceivable. F1 is why both companies exist.
Back in the 1960s BRM built their own engines as well as chassis, but didn’t make road cars; Lotus made iconic road cars and briefly built engines in the 1970s – and both have a claim to the mantle of Britain’s Ferrari. But now Mclaren have a stronger one. They design their own supercar engines, built by specialist firm Ricardo in Shoreham on the south coast of England. Could – and should – Mclaren set a target to power their own F1 cars in the future and complete the Ferrari parallel?
It makes no financial sense with the current breed of exotically expensive hybrids, and Brown gives the idea short shrift when F1 Racing raises the suggestion for the next generation of powerplant, too. But he does state that the new engine should be “less expensive. I don’t have a real strong view on how many cylinders it should have, but I do think the formula is too expensive. When you look at Indycar, they supply an engine programme for a year for $1.2m – and we’re well north of that. I’m not sure a really expensive engine puts on a better show for the fans. It costs us too much to go racing, not just in the power-unit department, but as a whole. We’re a supporter of bringing budgets down.
“I think having a Cosworth or an Ilmor supplying an engine would also be healthy for the sport, and I think that is something that will probably happen in the new world.” And if Cosworth and Ilmor could manage it, why not Mclaren?
SUNDAY 26 MARCH, MELBOURNE, RACE
Promoted one place to 12th on the grid by Daniel Ricciardo’s pre-race woes, Alonso drives “probably the best race of my life” to run in tenth for most of the Australian GP, only for Esteban Ocon’s Force India and Nico Hülkenberg’s Renault to finally swamp him seven laps from home. He then pulls in with suspected floor damage. Vandoorne does make it to the finish – in 13th, the final classified finisher and two laps down.
Alonso makes up a place at Hülkenberg’s expense at the start, then moves into the points from lap 14 when Romain Grosjean’s Haas expires. F1 Racing watches the race from the quick Turn 11/12 left-right flick, and during an afternoon in which most cars run in dull isolation, the orange Mclaren and Ocon’s pink Force India are noticeable exceptions. Ocon is glued to Alonso’s tail all the way to lap 50. Okay, so it’s clearly tough to pass in this new generation of F1 car, especially on a narrow, bumpy, parkland track – but Fernando is faultless. With lap times that vary by only a few tenths, Ocon barely gets a sniff, until late in the race Hülkenberg closes on both.
Even the mighty Alonso has to cede in the end, although not without a final flourish of resistance, and with tenth place gone he pulls in with that problem. A point has been lost, but in reality it has been made. Alonso has managed only the 17th fastest lap of the race, 3.5s off Kimi Räikkönen’s benchmark in a car he claims is 30kph down on power on the straights – but he has carried it far higher than it deserves.
This is exactly why they love Alonso at Mclaren – and why the team are desperate to keep him. What a performance that was in Albert Park. His best race ever? There are a fair few from happier days that would top it. The uncharitable might suggest talking up one’s own drive isn’t a bad idea when one wants to remind the market that one is ready and available for offers… but still, this was certainly special.
Buried in the midfield he might have been, but to anyone watching closely it was a performance that blazed in lights his defiant warrior spirit. In the paddock he looks dead-eyed and bored, but there’s a well of latent fury below the surface – and he unlocks it in the best way possible once the helmet is on.
Back at that FIA press conference earlier in the week, Hamilton had paid a warm and unprompted tribute to the man beside him – the rival he respects far beyond any other. “We need this guy to have a good car so he can get up there and fight with us as well – before his time’s up,” said Lewis. “We got a hint that it’s another couple of years [away] at least, so that’s good. I feel we’re yet to see the best of Fernando. The sport needs that and he deserves to be able to show that.”
But can Mclaren ever offer him what he needs to get back to where he once belonged? The answer to that question rides on Honda’s vital upgraded engine, coming soon at a race yet to be specified. This will represent the reaction Alonso is looking for – and if there’s not a marked improvement, ‘Mission: Impossible’ it will be.
Right now, it’s hard to believe Honda can make the leap. You sense the team know what they must do; whether it’s mid-season or at its end, it’s surely just a matter of time.