Halfway through the race now and it looks like both McLarens are in the running for points for the first time this year, they've gone from being absolutely nowhere in Melbourne to showing a good amount of promise midway through. Its going to be very interesting to see how they do in 2016 but perhaps even the later half of the year we'll see some decent results from them. There's something incredibly cool about seeing a Honda powered McLaren at Monaco again
Yes, much better, but I guess this track was always going be their chance. What has really surprised me is how far back they were at the start. You'd think that with so long to prepare and study what everyone else was doing that they would have been ready to go. I expected fast but unreliable...we've got slow and unreliable. Fingers crossed that they find a way to be fighting for top 6 by the end of the year.
Just watched the Canadian GP, very sad to hear the frustration in Alonso's voice over the radio but I have to say, watching him hold off Vettel for a lap and a half just by aggressively defending was a joy to watch, it clearly does have an amazing chassis and Alonso definitely hasn't lost a step, just needs the Honda power unit to come together. In the post race interviews when he was asked about the Vettel scrap he finally had an ear to ear grin saying how much fun he had and how much he enjoyed keeping Seb back though he didn't think Seb would have enjoyed it. If you can't get into the points, annoying the hell out of Sebastian at least lets you take some satisfaction from the weekend.
yes, that was fun to watch, however it went right back to being sad. especially after yet another retirement....and Button's reply to his team's retirement call amusing and sad. they're all just resigned to the fact that they aren't anywhere near having the pace to keep up. a shame to see
Watching the Austrian GP free practice, both Alonso and Button pulled in again for P2 due to serious engine problems Really hope they exorcise the demons from that Honda power unit before qualifying, as it is Alonso's looking at a 25 place grid penalty for parts replacement.
wow, a 25 place grid penalty will take them ages to work off...and depressingly enough, they'll likely only be adding to that total, getting further and further in 'debt'
They'll get to serve out the excess as drive through penalties, both will probably have to do a drive through with 10 second stationary pause with no actual pit work allowed during the race, so no debts carry forward. Really hoping for some rain, both Alonso and Button have the experience and the talent in the wet to be able to level the playing field, as Button showed when he was briefly in P1 on intermediates in Q1, the car definitely handles well.
learned that during button's interview. had forgotten they don't carry forward. it's all gotten so carried away at this point, i'm struggling to keep track! Button did mention that it was a shame the conditions improved and unfortunately brought the car into the equation. sad, funny and spot on observation.
It's painful to watch. Alonso says that the revised car he has this weekend is working better, so that's something. Surely heads are going to roll at Honda- look at the McLaren reaction to their problems compared to the way that Red Bull is treating Renault!
I loved this quote from Alonso after qualifying: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/06/20/uk-motor-racing-prix-alonso-idUKKBN0P00Q020150620 Good that he still has his sense of humour and can take the piss out of Mercedes and Seb still.
The most revealing statement was from Boullier when he was interviewed remarking that they have now reverted all the way back to the engine map / performance level they had in Australia for race #1 in order to build back the reliability, while they'd expected to push it up dramatically over the season. Would tend to indicate any gap closing that's happened to this point is as a result of chassis tuning rather than engine thus far.
Damn... New carbon aero parts didn't last very long, hope it wasn't Alonso that tapped Kimi, good to see both were ok though and unlike some of the more emotionally delicate drivers those two shook hands and were cool afterwards.