Analysing McLaren-Mercedes performance in the 2011 Formula 1 season so far
Besides the dominant Red Bull Racing in the ongoing 2011 Formula 1 season, McLaren-Mercedes have been performing pretty well as they are the only team to beat the defending world champions since the beginning of the term.
Seven races have been completed up until now and Red Bull Racing have managed to win 5 races while McLaren scored 2 race wins in China and Canada. Lewis Hamilton managed to win for McLaren in Shanghai while Jenson Button overcame Sebastian Vettel in Montreal.
However, McLaren have been unable to score a single pole position this season as Red Bull have a perfect pole position scoring record so far as Sebastian Vettel has scored six pole positions while his teammate Mark Webber scored the pole position for the
Spanish Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have scored 7 podiums including the two wins in this season which is nowhere near their expectations as Sebastian Vettel is currently leading the drivers’ standings by 161 points and his closest rival is Jenson Button who
is currently 60 points adrift of the reigning world champion.
Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton are in 3rd and 4th places respectively in the drivers’ standings which means that the top 4 spots of the drivers’ standings contains McLaren and Red Bull Racing drivers only.
Ferrari struggled to perform at the beginning of the 2011 Formula 1 season but with due time, the team has improved its performance and they are now almost on level terms with McLaren in terms of pace. Nevertheless, due to consistency issues, Ferrari are
struggling to perform while McLaren are performing more consistently as a result of which, they are in a better position in the championship.
However, one has to admit that the qualifying pace of Red Bull Racing is much faster than their racing pace. The race pace of McLaren and Ferrari on the other hand is quite competitive as Fernando Alonso finished the Monaco Grand Prix just tenths of a second
behind the race winner Vettel. Even at the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was right on the reigning world champion’s tail for the win until the very last lap of the race.
This proves that Red Bull Racing only have a good qualifying pace and if McLaren or Ferrari figure out a way to score better or competitive performances during qualifying, this season will spice up a lot.
Keeping in mind the results of the first seven races of the 2011 Formula 1 season, McLaren or Ferrari can only win this year’s championship if they pull off some sort of miracle or maybe rely on some external support of some sort.
According to a recent report, the officials of the sport have announced that the Blown Diffusers illegal use will be banned from the sport starting from the British Grand Prix. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) officials believe that the teams
are using the device as a movable aerodynamics device by blowing the exhaust even when the car is at rest and the accelerator is not being used.
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren’s principal believes that this is a ray of hope as Red Bull’s qualifying pace relies on this function and after it is banned, the championship leaders will lose their advantage in terms of pace.
McLaren are hoping to bounce back starting from the British Grand Prix which is after the upcoming European Grand Prix and they believe that this season is far from over yet. Let’s see how they fare in the remainder of the season.
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