McLaren’s strategy for the Brazilian Grand Prix
Team McLaren has been constantly bugging the championship leaders Red Bull like a fly as they are not performing consistently, but score the best results whenever they find an opportunity and affect Red Bull’s championship run
drastically. McLaren is currently in 2nd place in the Constructors’ standings with 399 points while Red Bull is leading the standings with 426 points. This means that Red Bull is leading McLaren by 27 points.
McLaren still has a chance of winning both titles as Lewis Hamilton is currently 21 points behind the championship leader Fernando Alonso. The team has not been able to perform consistently and therefore lost the lead in both standings.
Lewis Hamilton was lucky at the Korean Grand Prix as both Red Bulls retired and Lewis and Fernando were able to secure maximum points, enabling them to put them in a comfortable position individually in the drivers’ standings.
However, Jenson Button was not able to perform at his best and had one of the most disastrous races of this season. Jenson finished pointlessly in 12th place; therefore he is now in 5th place with just 189
points. That makes him 42 points behind the championship leader Fernando Alonso with just two races remaining in the season.
There is no chance that Jenson Button can win the championship. The only way he can win the championship is if he wins both of the final races and the top 4 drivers finish pointless in at least one of the races or retire. Since
Jenson Button is not an aggressive driver, he possible cannot win both of the races and even if he does, there is no possibility that the top 4 contenders finish in low positions in either of the final two races.
Therefore, McLaren has no choice but to support Lewis Hamilton in the final two races as he has a much better chance of winning the championship than the defending world champion Jenson Button. If Jenson Button helps his teammate
in the coming two races, McLaren would be the strongest team by a mile and with an aggressive driver like Lewis, all the team will have to do is finish the race safely with good points.
What Jenson Button should do now is hold his teammate’s rivals behind and let his teammate win or at least score the best possible result in order to secure maximum points for his team.
This way, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will work together and score good points for McLaren enabling the team to challenge Red Bull for the constructors’ title effectively as well. Even though Jenson Button is still mathematically
alive in the championship, there is no possibility of him winning the title even if he gives a groundbreaking performance. It is just a matter of luck now for him and it would be better for McLaren to try something which is more probable than rely on their
luck.
Lewis Hamilton has been able to perform aggressively this season and by the looks of it, he is more determined than Jenson in every way. Even though Lewis retired in 3 out of the past 6 races, at least he was trying his best to
secure the maximum points for his team by taking a shot. Jenson Button, on the other hand, has been playing safe since the beginning of the season and keeping in mind he vowed to be more aggressive in the final series of races to secure the title, he was clearly
not taking any risks unlike his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Martin Whitmarsh, the team boss of McLaren stated that Jenson will go to Brazil to win. However, it seems like a dumb move, or maybe not: maybe the team believes that Lewis does not need his teammate’s help or maybe because they
don’t want to be in the spotlight after all the controversies Ferrari went through after issuing team orders. You never know what Formula 1 has in store for you until the very last moment.
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