A review of Formula 1 team, McLaren-Mercedes in 2011 season so far
The 2011 Formula 1 season for McLaren-Mercedes team started in such a fashion that they would not have liked. But as the season progressed to take a more mature form, McLaren raised to the occasion to take every available opportunity.
Starting with the pre-season testing sessions, McLaren were not looking anywhere near the podium or first five positions.
Starting off in Valencia, McLaren opted to go for their 2010 car to test some simulations and some data on the new Pirelli tyres. McLaren’s drivers’ line-up remained the same for 2011 which was an all-British team, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Their
2011 car, MP4-26 was launched after the first test in Valencia was concluded.
Soon after the car was launched, it gave all sorts of problems to the team engineers. Starting off with the reliability issue after which it did not do much mileage in the Jerez testing session. Button and Hamilton started to show concern over the reliability
of the car.
In the last two tests in Barcelona, McLaren’s performance did not change much as they were still not able to grab some mileage under the belt and test the car for reliability. At that point, Button and Hamilton alerted the team that with this package, 2011
title hopes were not possible. McLaren’s car, MP4-26, was ranked as the most unreliable car of the 2011 season.
The McLaren team opted to change some features of the car before moving into the 2011 season opener in Australia which paid off. In the Friday free practice session in Melbourne, McLaren showed a completely different story when they showed good speed and
reliability in the same MP4-26. Not only did the McLaren team was able to perform well in the Friday Practice session, but also did a great job to check the Red Bull team, who were looking likely to take the 2011 championship comfortably.
Both McLarens qualified in the top five positions and Hamilton finished the race in second place behind Vettel’s first position. Although McLaren were slower than the Red Bull of Vettel in Qualifiers and the race, the British team was able to keep the other
Red Bull of Mark Webber in check all the time.
In the Malaysian Grand Prix, it was the same story with Vettel roaring away with pole-to-win, but Button in his MP4-26 took the second spot. Hamilton had a bit of an off day in Malaysia when his tyre strategy did not pay off when he tried to go for two stops.
He also had an accident with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the later parts of the race and ended up getting 20 seconds added to his time. Hamilton finished in a disappointing eighth position.
In the Chinese Grand Prix, Vettel was once again brilliant when he took the third consecutive pole position. He was eyeing a third pole-to-win Grand Prix, which was not to be. Both McLarens qualified right behind Vettel and as the race started Vettel was
shocked to see both Button and Hamilton ahead of him before the first corner. Vettel was on two-stop strategy and tried to do almost 25 laps on a set of prime tyres. Hamilton took the lead in the final few laps of the race and ended the winning streak of Vettel.
For now, Vettel is on top of the 2011 drivers’ championship table and both McLaren Brits are right behind him in 2nd and 3rd places.
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