2018 Report – McLaren: A Shadow of Its Former Self

Ranking in the championship: 6th, 62 points.

Best qualifying position: 7th (Alonso, Monaco)

Best race finish: 5th (Alonso, Australia)

This year, McLaren has undergone many changes, particularly regarding its engine supplier and from the perspective of its engineers. At the start of the season, the British team had promised to compete with Red Bull at the front, even declaring that it had the best chassis on the grid.

It now seems clear that the Honda engine was not solely responsible for the woes of the Woking team between 2015 and 2017. It even turned out that they had a worse aerodynamics department than last season.

And yet this 2018 campaign seemed to start on solid ground with 5 consecutive finishes in the points for Fernando Alonso, who even secured a fifth place in the inaugural race, which remained McLaren’s best result of the season. Unfortunately, during the second half of the season, the papaya orange cars only entered the points on three occasions.

If, however, the improvements made have allowed the eight-time world champion team to progress, we can only hope for better from this team which has not been on the podium since 2014. Hoping that Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, and this second year of collaboration with Renault will allow McLaren to address that.

Fernando Alonso:

Championship ranking: 11th, 50 points

Best qualifying position: 7th (Monaco)

The bull from Asturias can leave the premier category of motorsport proud of himself given his season. Throughout this year, he fought with a difficult-to-drive and inconsistently performing car. But it takes more to tame the old hand that is Alonso, who always manages to extract additional tenths that the car doesn’t offer.

Faced with his teammate, the record is straightforward, “Nando” will even manage to consistently beat his teammate in qualifying, an feat not achieved since 2008… by himself against Nelson Piquet Jr. Although in races the contrast is less stark, the Spanish driver managed to accumulate 38 more points than Stoffel Vandoorne.

Stoffel Vandoorne:

Ranking in the championship: 16th, 12 points

Best race finish: 8th (Bahrain and Mexico)

Best qualifying position: 11th (Spain)

After a 2017 campaign full of promises, one can only be disappointed by his 2018 season. The Belgian driver continually accused McLaren of providing him with a less competitive car than his teammate, creating some discomfort within the Oranges.

Stoffel Vandoorne’s defeat against Alonso is very likely due to the pressure exerted by the now-retired Formula 1 driver on his teammates, as well as the entire politics of the British team towards the 2015 GP2 champion, who was on an ejection seat from the start of the season.

The future of the most promising driver in the junior formulas is now with HWA, Mercedes’ structure in Formula E, where he must prove to the world that he has retained his talent and that a return to the pinnacle of motorsport is not out of the question, especially now that the Belgian is under the tutelage of the world champion team.