McLaren has started a Formula 1 season with victory on 13 occasions, and in a further seven seasons they have managed to win in the second race.
But after two grands prix in 2023, the team has finished no higher than 15th and sits last in the constructors’ standings. Have they ever started a season this badly before?
1966
Monaco GP: DNF, Belgium GP: DNS
In McLaren’s first year as a manufacturer team in F1, founder Bruce McLaren raced just one M2B and didn’t even take part in every race that season. The team’s debut came in Monaco, where McLaren put their tenth car on the grid.
He completed just nine laps before an oil leak ended his day, but briefly moved up to sixth after some exciting wheel-to-wheel action. His short time in the race was also recorded for the film ‘Grand Prix’ which was released in cinemas later that year.
The next race on the program was the Belgian Grand Prix, at the old 14km Spa-Francorchamps track. Oil leaks continued to worry McLaren, who had a different engine in their car, and with no spare decided not to start the race after competing in qualifying. The subsequent filming of the “Grand Prix” meant that another machine was painted to look like McLaren’s for the race.
Later points finishes at the UK and US Grands Prix saw McLaren finish 16th in the standings. The team’s start to life in F1 was certainly rocky, but matters soon improved and became a two-car effort in 1968.
1994
Brazilian GP: 2x DNF, Pacific GP: 2x DNF
McLaren’s reliability proved dire after they switched to Peugeot engines in 1994. They took three podiums in the first nine races, but also suffered 13 retirements in the same period.
The season started with the team several seconds off the pace, but was a top five contender due to gaps in the field. Making the most of the margin he had over other teams proved difficult, however. Mika Hakkinen’s engine gave up after 13 laps in the season-opening Brazilian Grand Prix, while Martin Brundle’s career ended when he was collected by a three-car crash behind him which involved Eddie Irvine, Jos Verstappen and Eric Bernard.
McLaren was comfortably in the top 10 in each session of the following test at the TI Aida circuit in Japan. But fourth and sixth on the grid turned into another double retirement in the race. Hakkinen took second after clearing Ayrton Senna at the start, then held off attacks from Damon Hill before sensing a hydraulic problem emerging and opting to retire. Brundle then worked his way up to third, albeit a lap down, until he too was hit by reliability issues.
2000
Australian GP: 2x DNF, Brazilian GP: DNF and DSQ
What’s worse than four retirements? How about three retirements and a disqualification?
Hakkinen began the defense of his second world championship title with pole in the first two races, but did not finish in either of them.
In Australia there was much concern over the team’s Mercedes engines, with a failure in practice forcing both cars to change engines and gearboxes. Hakkinen and team-mate David Coulthard then locked down the front row in qualifying, but their engines were again problematic and both drivers ended the day before even a third of the race had been completed. the race.
The previous year, McLaren had recovered from a double retirement in Australia, with Hakkinen winning the Brazilian GP and then the title. This turn was not foreseen in 2000.
Although they filled the front row again in Brazil, and the team believed they had solved the problems that had caused their cars in Australia, a lack of engine oil pressure saw Hakkinen out in the first half of the race. Coulthard managed to finish second, but was later disqualified because the front wing plates were a few millimeters too low. After two races, only Sauber’s drivers sat below McLaren’s in the standings.
But from such an unpromising start, by round 12 in Hungary, Hakkinen and McLaren were leading both championships, although Michael Schumacher and Ferrari beat them.
2017
Australian GP: 13th and DNF, Chinese GP: 2x DNF
The final season of McLaren’s ill-fated spell with Honda engines got off to an unpromising start. The team had to wait until the eighth race to score, and finished the season without finishing in the top five for the only time in its history.
Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were more than two seconds off the pace during the opening weekend of the Australian Grand Prix, with neither completing the full race distance. Alonso had to retire with a ground fault, and Vandoorne came home in last place with two laps to go.
Two weeks later in China it was spared the indignity of a lap as both cars retired. A fuel pressure problem took Vandoorne out after 17 laps, and Alonso had an hour’s run inside the top ten before an axle failure forced him out.
Fundamental problems in the design of the cars and the packaging of what was considered an uncompetitive powertrain left McLaren with little ability to turn around its season six years ago. This poor start proved fully representative of the problems ahead.
2023
Bahrain GP: 17th and DNF, Saudi Arabian GP: 15th and 17th
To illustrate just how badly McLaren has started the season, every other team’s average final position is better than their highest career result to date.
The team talked a lot after the race at the Bahrain Grand Prix about how Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had shown the pace to score points in the McLaren MCL60, but the scale of their reliability problems meant that the potential was very far from reality An electrical failure meant Piastri completed just 13 laps on his F1 debut before retiring. Norris has come within two laps of having to visit the pits six times following a flat tire.
Piastri started eighth in the next race, but was last on the second lap after contact. He had to make a pit stop, as did Norris who had the misfortune of hitting his teammate’s debris. In the end Piastri recovered 15th position, 1.4 seconds and two positions ahead of his teammate, but 20 seconds off the points.
Despite McLaren’s poor start to 2023, there does not appear to be any major underlying technical weakness that needs to be addressed, as was the case in some of the previous seasons. The MCL60 also seems to have some pace as the inexperienced Piastri has already put his car on the fourth row of the grid.
But there have been mistakes on the part of the drivers and the team. McLaren have now parted ways with their technical director James Key, indicating a lack of belief in the direction they had taken with the design of the MCL60. It is eagerly awaiting upgrades to address their poor aerodynamic efficiency which has put them at a disadvantage in terms of straight line speed.
McLaren are certainly being punished more severely for their poor start to this season than they have been in previous years when the field wasn’t as close. But while mistakes are more costly now than in seasons past, there is also more to be gained from other people’s mistakes, and McLaren knows from previous years that they have been able to bounce back well from bad starts, although repeating the challenge for the title of the year 2000 does not seem. realistic
But, as any team will point out, this season has started at two very different tracks that are not representative of most venues on the calendar. McLaren’s early season struggles are soon forgotten.
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