McLaren documentary - Grand Prix Driver

Slutmonkey57b

Anyone else watched it yet? Pretty remarkable for McLaren to give a documentary team unrestricted access, and it was interesting to watch just what sort of things got blurred out! Obviously doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, but some of the dynamics were interesting. I didn't get the impression that McLaren have really assessed some of their failings.

Basic things like how excited Alonso was about fan made liveries, and then the reveal of the horrorshow the internal team had produced (again). Same team is working on this years' livery that worked on the last 5 seasons widely derided liveries.

The first two episodes cover how awfully behind McLaren are in the car build;
1. Missing a floor, failing to get the one floor they have got prepped in time, the builders of said floor clearly not having an idea how to fit the new design together.
2. Not having 2 chassis built ready for testing. The chassis they do have is missing key components 2 days before the test.
3. The engine arrives having never been mated to a gearbox before, and mounting pins are the wrong design. Nobody thought to ship a gearbox casing to Japan? Nobody from Honda was on site to check before the engine arrived?

Despite all this, McLaren clearly put the blame on Honda, who deserve a lot of it. I'm not convinced their woes are finished though.

Slutmonkey57b

Actually he can, he's just saying it French styleeee.

flazio

Ficus wrote: »

I watched it last night. Interesting to see behind those closed doors but i suppose its a change away from the Ron era.
The main things i took away from it were:
1. That honda engine really did surprise everyone with how **** it was, it makes me think what is in the water in their design factory, especially with the engine mounting pin issue.
2. Michael Douglas cannot say the word Renault.

Did you see how green and mouldy the water looked? Would explain a lot if that's what they're drinking.

allybhoy

I thought it was fascinating....few things stood out for me..

1. From the outside it looks like they are waaay overstaffed with a lot of faceless suits trying to justify their position. Very little passion in that organisation. Something isnt right, lets have a meeting, something is right, lets have a meeting, everything is the same, lets have a meeting.

2. Looks like a completely blameless environment. If it wasn't Honda's fault then it was just the way things went. Very little leadership from management or responsibility. Like nobody thought to send a chassis to Honda before Barcelona testing so they could mount the engine to it and run it in situe on a dyno.. After Barca they are panicking trying to get a chassis completed so they can send it to Japan. Bizarre

3. Very one sided, never really heard from Honda management or engineers, but that's understandable i suppose if its a Mcclaren doc, but it would have been nice to have heard Honda's version of events for balance \ objectivity purposes.

4. Alonso looked lost and disinterested before the start of last season.
He literally couldnt have looked any more disillusioned with the team and he instinctively knew before testing that the car was going to be a lemon. Flew in for a day here and there on a tight schedule to Woking for PR work etc then immediately flew straight back out. Very sad to see

4. Im very very envious of a modern day driver, their every need and want is tended to...feckers