The 2013 season saw the McLaren team slip to fifth place in the Constructors Championship behind their rivals Lotus, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. It was clear during the 2013 pre-season testing period that McLaren had taken the wrong approach with the ‘radical’ MP4-28 and should have took to an ‘evolution’ of their predecessor the MP4-27 which was the fastest car of the 2012 season.
It emerged during the 2013 pre-season test that after fitting their suspension the wrong way round and also illegally , McLaren lost two seconds on their rivals which made it extremely difficult for them to catch up last season. Last season saw McLaren since 1980 fail to get either driver on the podium, even though during the second half of the 2013 season, their current driver Jenson Button and their former driver Sergio Perez (more so Button) performed better.
But the astonishing fourth place that Button achieved in the Brazilian Grand Prix at least ensured that McLaren ended their troublesome 2013 season with their best result of the season.
This is was all the motivation that McLaren needed to ensure that the 2014 season was the year that McLaren produced a competitive car and get back to the front of the grid. However before the 2014 season began, McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis returned back to the team to lead the team “back to competitive ways”. His first change in the McLaren team was former Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh being sacked and was replaced by former Lotus Team Principal and McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier, with the objective to “restructure the team and to deliver success.”
In order for McLaren to achieve this aim, they retained Jenson Button who brings with him many years experience he has gained in his career in the sport. To partner Button, McLaren signed rookie driver (just like Caterham with Marcus Ericsson and Toro Rosso with Danil Kvyat) Kevin Magnussen who was promoted from Formula Renault 3.5 series after winning the title with DAMS team in his second year.
However, the 2014 season has been a mixed bag for McLaren so far. Even during pre-season testing, it was clear that the MP4-29 was a step forward from the 2013 car, but it still needed to a lot of work in order to get McLaren back to where they want and need to be on the track.
The first half of the season saw McLaren at the season opener in Albert Park score their first double podium of the season with Magnussen and Button (after it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from second place due to exceeding the fuel limit during the race) in second and third places and it would seem that McLaren have learnt their lessons from last season and started their year with a bang they needed to.
However in the next five races, McLaren appeared to struggle once again to extract the pace and performance from the car and also get the best out of the Pirelli tyres to challenge for points on a consistent and regular basis and this either saw McLaren finishing outside of the points or just scraping enough to get lower points finishes.
But before the end of the season break after the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren responded by bringing upgrades quickly to the track. These upgrades appeared to have helped McLaren slightly and they manage to achieve a credible seventh place with Magnussen in Austria and a remarkable fourth place finish with Button at their home race in Silverstone.
It is clear that the McLaren simply have build a car that is good enough and but it is severely lacking the pace and the downforce to even challenge their rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Despite McLaren bringing improvements to the car very quickly during the first half of the season (even though they struggled during the Hungarian Grand Prix very badly), they need to ensure that they continue this process as quickly as possible throughout the rest of the season ahead.
Alongside this, speculation surrounding McLaren’s 2015 driver line up has developed rapidly over the past few weeks. Last month, Dennis in an interview with the media stated that Button needed to “try harder” with Button responding that he was doing “everything that he could” to improve his performances in the car.
In response to the comments made by Dennis and Button, Boullier publically stated that he believes that Button would be retained for the 2015 season. But over the past month, Boullier has given several interviews to the media that McLaren would look at “every viable option” regarding their driver line up for next year and have stated their intention to lure a big name driver such as Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel or even Lewis Hamilton to the team as they look to building the team for the future with their new engine supplier Honda.
At this current stage of the season, it would seem that McLaren in Boullier’s words are “waiting” to see what happens in regards to the driver market for next season before finalising their driver line up for the 2015 season. But with reports that Lotus driver Romain Grosjean could be looking for a new challenge for 2015, trying to lure Alonso, Vettel or Hamilton to join the team even in 2016 or even promoting their young driver Stoffel Vandoorne into a race seat, are Button and Magnussen’s drives with the team seriously under threat as the media is reporting?
Jenson Button 60 points/ 8th in the Driver’s Championship
So far in 2014, Button has been the only consistent driver for McLaren and has brought the car home for them at every race even if the car is not the most competitive car on the grid. Even though it is to be expected that Button would out-qualify this rookie team by 6 times to 5 times, he has also finished more races than Magnussen by 8 times to 2 times, showing that consistency is the key to beating your team-mate on a regular basis, even if Magnussen has outperformed him along the way.
Over the course of the season so far, Button has had mixed results. He started off the year in Australia with a third place finish after Daniel Ricciardo was excluded from the race for exceeding the fuel limit. However, the next five races saw Button struggling to extract pace and performance from the car. Button was disappointed to have only finished sixth in Malaysia, seventeenth in Bahrain and eleventh in Spain especially which allowed Magnussen to outperform him on the track.
From the Monaco Grand Prix, it would appear that Button has been able to outperform and take the fight to Magnussen. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Button finished in a credible sixth, with the next race in Canada seeing him finish in an astonishing fourth place in an action packed race in Montreal, then once again struggling with the car in Austria to finish out of the points in eleventh, then finish an amazing fourth at his home Grand Prix in Silverstone and finishing in the points in eighth place at Germany and tenth place in Hungary before the summer break.
However, Button has not given the McLaren team its best race finish so far this season. Button’s best race finish for the McLaren team is his third place finish in the Australian Grand Prix compared to Magnussen who finished in second place at the Australian Grand Prix.
Even though Magnussen has achieved the best finish for the McLaren team so far this season, it is clear that Button consistently and regularly has out shone his rookie team mate and is showing that all the experience he has gained from his time in the sport is helping him extract pace and performance from the car and bring it home in the best average position of 6th place with the MP4-29 so far this season but only just.
Kevin Magnussen 37 points / 10th in Driver’s Championship
So far in 2014, Magnussen has so far shown the performances that many expected of him as a rookie driver in his first season in the sport but he has impressed many pundits and fans along the way.
Even though it is to be expected that Magnussen would make mistakes along the way in his debut year in the sport, Magnussen has shown instead that he can consistently bring the home to finish a race. Magnussen has been out-qualified by Button 6 times to 5 times, he also hasn’t been able to finish races either with Button beating him 8 times to 2 times but he has given Button a run for his money along the way.
Over the course of the season so far, Magnussen just like Button has had mixed results. He started off the year in Australia with an amazing second place finish after Daniel Ricciardo was excluded from the race for exceeding the fuel limit. However, the next five races saw Magnussen just like Button struggling to extract pace and performance from the car. Magnussen was disappointed to have only finished ninth in Malaysia, retired in Bahrain due to clutch failure and thirteenth in Spain especially which allowed Button to outperform him on the track.
From the Monaco Grand Prix, it would appear that Magnussen has tried to outperform and take the fight to Button who had the edge over him. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Magnussen finished in a credible tenth place, with the next race in Canada seeing him finish in ninth place in an action packed race in Montreal, then able to extract the pace with the car in Austria to finish in the points in seventh ahead of his team mate who finished eleventh, then finish seventh at Silverstone and finishing in the points in ninth place at Germany and then out of the points in twelfth place in Hungary before the summer break.
However, Magnussen has given the McLaren team its best finish in a Grand Prix so far this season. At the Australian Grand Prix, Magnussen finished in second place compared to Button’s best race finish for the McLaren team which is third place in the same Grand Prix.
Even though Magnussen has achieved the best finish for the McLaren team, it is clear that he has been unable to out-qualify and out-race his more experienced team mate Button as to be expected, even if he has given him a run for his money. During the season, Magnussen has shown that his inexperience, failing to get to grips with the car, or suffering from reliability issues has not been able to show what he can do in the MP4-29 and his best average race position of 9th place only highlights and reflects what he has been able to achieve halfway through his first year in the sport with the McLaren team in a car that needs more development to further improve.
Race Results this season:-
| AUS |
MAL |
BAH |
CHI |
SPAI |
MON |
CAN |
AUS |
BRI |
GER |
||
| Jenson Button | 3 | 6 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 10 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 2 | 9 | DNF | 13 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 12 |
Performance Comparison:-
| Jenson Button | Kevin Magnussen | |
| Qualified ahead | 6 | 5 |
| Average qualifying gap | +0.234s | -0.234s |
| Finished race ahead | 8 | 2 |
| Laps spent ahead | 478 | 198 |
Looking ahead for the rest of the season, the McLaren team need to ensure that they can bring everything that they can to in order to improve their performances and close the gap to their rivals Force India who are ahead of them currently, in order to try and battle for fourth place in the Constructors Championship. It is imperative that these upgrades that McLaren bring to the rest of the races this season work as efficiently as possible and show a significant step and improvement on the track to take the battle to Force India who will also be looking to improve and maintain their current form.
Personally, I do believe that if McLaren do not develop their car as much as they possibly can with the resources that they have (and there is no reason for them not to do this), then McLaren will still be in the position where they are currently and the future of Button and Magnussen could be looking shaky for both of them if they fail to achieve this objective especially as McLaren continue to evaluate all the options they could take with drivers for next season with their return with engine manufacturer Honda.
It is now time for the McLaren team to fight for fourth in the Constructors Championship, to fight with everything that they have for the remainder of the season and provide Button and Magnussen with the tools to deliver and gain back another position in the Constructors Championship as McLaren continue to build themselves up for the future under their new organisation and management structure under the leadership of Dennis and Boullier.
