Norbert Haug Reveals New Mercedes McLaren Is A Dog
There has been a massive amount of speculation regarding the development of the McLaren Mercedes this offseason. Norbert Haug has finally confirmed the rumors – it is a dog.
The preseason testing for the 2009 Formula One season has been full of surprises. Honda nearly folded their team before selling it to Ross Brawn and a group of investors. Not only did the sell it to him, but they gave him some 100 million pounds to run it. Imagine their surprise when the team immediately started setting the best times by far of all the teams?
On the opposite end of the scope is the McLaren Mercedes. A big budget team, the 2009 car was expected to be strong. Then preseason testing began. The car looked bad. It finished near the bottom of the pack day after day. Could the team be sandbagging? Fans hoped so. Others suggested McLaren was really missing Fernando Alonso who is a great developer of cars. The truth, of course was nobody really new what was going on – till now.
The powers that be are coming clean a week before the season starts in Australia. Lewis Hamilton has admitted he doesn’t expect to contend for a win. New Team Leader Whitmarsh has admitted as much. It is the highly credible Norbert Haug, however, that should be making McLaren fans very nervous.
In a recent interview, Haug made some startling statements per his role as the head of the Mercedes side of the team. Not only doesn’t he expect the team to challenge for a win in Australia, he expects them to qualify in the rear third of the field! He also doesn’t expect the car to be competitive until the European races start – AT THE EARLIEST. In short, the McLaren is not just slow. It is a dog.
Why should this be particularly worrisome to McLaren fans? Well, how exactly is the team going to develop the car? There is no in season testing allowed this year. None! The team can run simulations on the computer, but we all know how that goes. The team can also try out new parts on race weekends, but that is dodgy at best. To make matters even worse, the other teams are not going to sit and wait for McLaren to develop their car. They will be evolving as well, which makes it all the more difficult to catch up to their pace.
The sad truth is the 2009 season is starting to look like a lost cause for McLaren Mercedes. This has happened before. McLaren has a history of having problems launching substantially new cars. Who can forge the MP4-18? Well, everyone. The car was such a disaster that it never actually got onto the track.
With the new rules, McLaren Mercedes doesn’t have that option this year. If the new car is a dog, they’ll have to suck it up and ride around in the back of the pack for the year much like Ferrari did a few years ago when it had a one off bad year. Lewis Hamilton must be wondering how it all went so bad so quickly.
Lemmy