On top of that the last year that Honda had a turbo F1 engine paired with a McLaren car, they dominated entirely the season winning all bar one race.
Me on the other hand, as well as some others of course, was actually thinking on the previous venture in F1 by Honda that failed big time. Toyota also had big ambitious and came up short so I did not trusted much in the Japanese engineering, as before.
Starting the new season with the first Grand Prix at Melbourne, many people were still believing McLaren would pull a Red Bull 2014 (where they performed miserably in testing only to be the second fastest team at the season start).
In reality they were a mirror of the 1988 season. Back then they locked up the first row in Qualifying and now they locked up the last row, like a mirror (where left is right and right is left)...
Officially they are not last, because the Manor team, last year known as Marussia, made a very surprising comeback and showed-up at the 11th-hour, only to keep the cars in the garage all the time, during Friday and Saturday. I think that they didn't even started the engines.
Many of us ask why would they travel Down Under in these circumstances? Well, my sources tell me that actually it was Ron Dennis (McLaren's CEO) that paid for their trip, thus ensuring McLaren would not finish last.
I also have inside information that it was Ron Dennis who pushed Giedo van der Garde to pursue legal action against the Sauber team, and rumour has it he bribed the judge to rule in his favour. The reason for this? Knowing there was less than 5% chances van der Garde would run for Sauber this weekend, he was hoping the judge would seize Sauber's cars, or prevent them to run with the other 2 drivers, making sure McLaren would have one car in Q2 (5 cars are eliminated at each session, 4 would be the Manors and the Saubers).
McLaren started the weekend on the wrong foot already with the start driver, Fernando Alonso not racing due to head trauma following a crash in testing at Barcelona. There are some conspiracy theories surrounding the crash, also because Alonso had memory loss following the crash, believing it was 1995. I talked with Fernando because we are best pals, and he confirmed to me, the memory loss was influenced by one thought that was always on his mind during that day: 2015 is a year to forget.
There are still some doubts regarding his return to competition. The team has confirmed that the doctors will decide when. Fernando already called his doctors to say he needs more weeks. Not that there's is anything wrong with him, but everything is wrong with the car, so the latter the better.
As for the rest of the qualifying there were some surprises and some confirmations.
The surprises were:
- The gap between Mercedes and the rest of the filed did not reduced but increased and a lot! Before they were miles ahead, now they are light-years ahead.
- Ferrari does have a solid pace and Vettel will be fighting for second, or third, best from the get-go;
- Red Bull are bellow expectations and Toro Rosso are above. If it was just the Renault engine being a turd, both teams would be under-performing. Things are not going smoothly between Milton Keynes and Viry-Châtillon...
The confirmations:
- Lotus did recover a lot from last year blunder and are solid contenders for podiums this year;
- Carlos Sainz Jr outperformed the "teenage sensation" Max Verstappen
- McLaren-Honda have a mountain to climb...
I had to write something today before the actual race that can produce different outcomes. Also might as well make fun of McLaren now, kicking when they're down, because we never know if they will come back strong latter and turn the tables on everyone. Well, everyone bar Mercedes, that is.
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