Indy 500: McLaren Reveal Mistakes That Led to Failing to Qualify

[RichardHessels]

Djeez, so it basically comes down that they screwd their practice and qualy because it was not the right color of orange. When reproducing bright orange digitally on a variety of media it will show up as a different color on any media. Could they not have a corrected the press photos, after they have qualified, than respray the damn car.

 

[JonathanBenn]

Hiya Paul - love the site; love your work but could you post a link to the original journalism and cite the source? That stuff's important - it's a journalist's livelihood.

Thanks so much.

 

[paracletus]

tl;dr lame excuses. Bunch of claptrap.
- they all messed up, including Alonso. Accept it and do better next time.

 

[Enoneado]

Mclaren is trolling Alonso since years ago...

 

[Miguel Batista]

What? hell no, the people at the sharp end go first, they're cheaper & can't shift blame.

How the hell did they get into this mess? this has all the hallmarks of a rush job by a team who have no experience with rush jobs.

Normally would agree but this has management written all over it. This was not the fault of the grunts. This was gross missmanagement.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Honestly Mclaren understimated how complex an super oval is.
We are on a simracing website so this is gonna be easier.

On a road course you set up the front and the rear.
On an oval you setup the 4 corners of the car.
There's so much refinement necessary to your aerodynamic profile and gearing (as Mclaren just learned apparently) that you can't just "get back" under braking.

And going against a number of teams that perfected their system over the years, and run multiple cars... Mclaren decided to team up with Carlin, another inexperienced team, genius.

 

[howitzer155mm]

McLaren slap their name onto a Dallara-Honda and feel like big shots. To say McLaren is running in the Indy 500 is a stretch, nothing more than a McLaren-Sponsored DW12.

 

[guidofoc]

Failing to even qualify is beyond embarrassing. If this is McLaren then God save us all.

 

[NtsParadize]

Lol, if Ron Dennis were running things, these people would be swimming back to Blighty!

Like in 2014?

 

[CreamyCornCob]

Zak Brown is either fired or knows he's getting fired.
Oh man. He just said live in Monoco P1. "Fernando deserved to be in the race, McLaren didn't deserve to be in it".

Now he's bashing as I type, OH HE JUST CALLED it a cover up
Damn, Zak is blackened burnt toast. He's just ripping the team and manufacture a new bunghole, inside and out.

 

[Tom Blackett]

Heads should roll.

 

[atomicgarden]

Mclaren is nothing more but a PR exercise for the repressive regime of Bahrain, what do you expect, I think people still confuse this outfit with the actual McLaren which does not exist anymore.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Heads should roll.

To some extent they already have, Bob Fernley was the man put in charge of the whole project and he's left McLaren with immediate effect. Zac Brown put him in charge so he could concentrate on the F1 team. Which in my view was the right way to do it (ex Force India Boss). Why things fell apart the way they did is ultimately down to Bob as he was in charge, however Zac is at the top of the management structure of course.

The link with Carlin didn't work, ok it's better than nothing and any support is good but they were both in the same boat experience wise and that simply didn't help. As it happened of course Carlin failed as well. Why they linked with another rookie team I'm not sure but that didn't help at all.

When I read that McLaren were running their own car I knew immediately it would be hard work for them, they are a top team of course but as others have mentioned this is a complete unknown for them, racing at Indy is a science in itself and it takes some teams many years before they properly know what to do. So if Alonso had qualified in the top 20 and finished I think they would have been happy with that. Alonso wouldn't have been of course but a win would have been impossible with the experience the other teams have.

It reminds me of new teams that decide to do Le Mans about four months before the race, you just know that they will face an uphill battle, in some cases they don't make it past qualifying as well.

The whole car colour issue is just plain weird to me. It was practice, just get the car out with the sponsors on. Track time is everything during the month of May and the constant changing weather was playing havoc with all the teams. Even if it was carbon black with sponsors in white vinyl that would have been fine. The team needed the track time more than anything.

Finally though, and I'm not trying to defend the team but the margins as so, so close now. Everyone in that field was covered by a small amount of time, which is great to see but of course it makes it even tougher for those that don't make it.

I'm been watching the daily YouTube vids with Marshall Pruett and Sebastian Bordais and he said practice and qualifying was just very tough for everyone. The weather kept changing, the wind direction kept changing (so some had tailwinds, others had headwinds on their runs). They've had constant rain, sun, storms, just about everything during the last few weeks. It hasn't been plain sailing for any of the teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if the weather spoils things come Sunday. At the moment it's showing 60-70% chance of rain on Sunday.

What I would like to see is McLaren, dust themselves down, pick themselves up and run the car at some events this year. Alonso would love Road America for example and it would generate good publicity for the series and bring the crowds in more.

On a completely different note, well done to all the small teams that have made it in. I listened to a great interview with Pippa Mann last year about the work she has to do every year to get into the race, the amount of hours and graft to get sponsors and so on. They all deserve to be there come Sunday.

 

[atomicgarden]

Pippa is real motorsports, showing up every year, getting sponsors, all because she loves racing. Coincidently if she would dare to drive even a street car in the country ruled by McLarens owners she would be put in jail.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I forgot to mention in my post at the top regarding the team. A sponsor less, small money team, borrowing bits and pieces from other teams, bumps a multi billion dollar team with millions of dollars in sponsorship.

Which also shows how important some preparation really is. Juncos is a top team in Indy Lights and the Pro Series, but in addition they did Indy 500 in 2017 with 2 cars. They also had 1 car doing 12 races last year, and have done one this year. They have some experience in this.

I think DragonSpeed is even more impressive. While they have been running LMP2 cars for some years. They've never been in open wheelers before. They have done 2 races in the championship so far this year to get some experience. 4 of the top mechanics in the team didn't get a visa to enter the USA. So they've hired Indianapolis locals, and did so the week before it all started on the oval. The team have never done oval racing before, and only had the oval test at Texas in April as experience. They didn't even participate in the Open/Rookie test a Indianapolis late April.
So a team consisting of local hires from Indianapolis, a crew with no oval experience from a team who had never ran an open-wheeler before this year, and a driver who hadn't been on an oval in his life. Teamed up with an experienced engineer. They managed to outqualify the mighty McLaren with Alonso.
Not only that, they got in safely during day 1, they managed to get locked in to the field! Even ahead of one Andretti and one Ganassi car!

Remember that DragonSpeed doesn't have a sponsor either! And I'll argue they are the biggest surprise of the whole Indy so far!

Go Ben Hanley!!!

The whole car colour issue is just plain weird to me. It was practice, just get the car out with the sponsors on. Track time is everything during the month of May and the constant changing weather was playing havoc with all the teams. Even if it was carbon black with sponsors in white vinyl that would have been fine. The team needed the track time more than anything.

Indeed. Just look at Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr in 1995, when the Marlboro Penske team DNQ'd (last 3 Indy 500 winners, and reigning champion DNQ'd!). They got some T-Cars from other teams.

Wasn't any talk about repainting the thing. Just stick some Marlboro stickers on the cars and get out on the track!

Also, Ryan Hunter Reay in 2011 (last buy out of a qualified driver).
Originally qualified by Bruno Junqueira

Bought by Andretti Autosport - as it was a week between the buying and the race, they had the chance to change some colors. But all original sponsors was still on the car.
Ryan Hunter Reay in the race.

And here McLaren lost a whole day of practice due to the "wrong type of Orange". It was Papaya-Orange-ish, not McPapaya?

 

[Antony Snook]

There is no harm in trying

 

[Antony Snook]

You have to understand Indy is not as easy as it looks. Its a rectangle of 4 left turns with very little banking. Driven on full throttle most of the lap.
When something goes wrong it can be very dangers more than a F1 Track.

So all you Europeans thinking this stuff is easy Alonso and McLaren have proven it not so, it just looks easy on TV.

I have tried to run the Indy race on my rF2 sim and the pack just pulled away big time, so i know how hard racing at the Brickyard is.

 

[CreamyCornCob]

You have to understand Indy is not as easy as it looks. Its a rectangle of 4 left turns with very little banking. Driven on full throttle most of the lap.
When something goes wrong it can be very dangers more than a F1 Track.

Umm it is very easy to drive the track, just ask any driver thats had a lot of laps there. The car creates so much downforce that it exceeds the need to lift. So you're just driving along.

So all you Europeans thinking this stuff is easy Alonso and McLaren have proven it not so, it just looks easy on TV.

Dude, give me a break. They didn't prove anything, other then all the errors they made, and not getting out qualified to race.

I have tried to run the Indy race on my rF2 sim and the pack just pulled away big time, so i know how hard racing at the Brickyard is.

Yes, thats a real telling gauge you have there, you sitting behind a keyboard saying indy is hard in real life lol

Its not hard, its foot to the floor, no lift with massive high down force and turn left.

And you saying its hard for Alonso and this stuff aint easy?
How fast you forget, Alonso jumped in the car, never driven the track or an oval, nor the car on the oval and qualified 7th in 2017.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

McLaren slap their name onto a Dallara-Honda and feel like big shots. To say McLaren is running in the Indy 500 is a stretch, nothing more than a McLaren-Sponsored DW12.

Just a small correction, Dallara-Chevy.

The Mclaren-Honda relationship is just bile towards one another at this point.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Can I repeat that Mclaren have won Indy multiple times, it is not a complete unknown & it's not beyond the ken of anyone to hire people with recent experience either. This is just a disaster of project management.