McLaren

Gouger Street Party revs up

Standard

Image: Adelaide Rally

Brendan Lines

December 6, 2019

As cars in the Adelaide Rally race across the state, motorsport fans will be able to take a more casual pace getting up close to the machines tonight at the Gouger Street Party 2019.

The fan favourite event will see all of this year’s entrants park their machines in Adelaide’s west-end restaurant district to celebrate motorsport in the city of Adelaide.

Previously a feature of the for now scaled back Adelaide Motorsport Festival, the Gouger Street Party has been retained, but for the first time ever it will be a fully licensed event.

Allowing for more casual fans and die-hards alike to enjoy the event says rally spokesperson and keen racer Tim Possingham.

“ One thing we have seen in previous years is that the crowds are incredibly diverse. We obviously have the car enthusiasts coming along, but we also see city workers joining in for the buzz in the street, families with young kids and lots of people who become the car enthusiasts of the future as a result of seeing not just the beauty, power and style of the cars, but also the camaraderie and carnival atmosphere of the event.”

Attracting near 43 000 visitors over the three days of last year’s event, it’s a boon for local business as traders and sponsors invest more towards the bustling crowds says Possingham.

“This year our sponsors, Amadio Wines, will be operating their pop-up Ruby’s Wine Bar and the entire street is licensed, so people can check out the field of more than 250 rally cars with a glass of wine in hand.

“The Gouger St Traders Association are preparing for the crowds with all restaurants offering extended al fresco dining, plus there will be star drivers, live music, and even an appearance from Adelaide’s own supercar, the Brabham BT62,” he said.

Another home grown racing legend in attendance will be Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones who is competing in a McLaren 720s Spider.

Jones who raced at the first Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Adelaide in 1985, said to The Advertiser Adelaide continues its good reputation for hosting motorsport events.

“Adelaide is big enough to hold it and do it properly, but small enough to embrace it on a more personal basis,” he said.

The Gouger Street party kicks-off tonight from 5.30pm.

https://www.adelaiderally.com.au/gouger-st-party

McLaren’s long road back to the F1 podium

Standard

Above Image: Getty Images

Brendan Lines

November 22, 2019

At last Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix McLaren secured its first podium finish in 2,072 days locking away fourth place in this year’s constructors championship, after a post-race time penalty handed to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton promoted Carlos Sainz on to the podium, so just how has McLaren risen from the ashes of its past woes?

It hasn’t been a straight road by any means for McLaren after the failed rekindling of the Honda partnership, departure of Adrian Newey, loss of Lewis Hamilton and the infamous ‘Spygate’ saga that caused instability on and off the track — McLaren have finally turned the tide toward a brighter future.

Team Principle Andreas Seidl said to McLaren.com it was a team effort pulling off the great result in Brazil.

“P4 in the Constructors’ World Championship for McLaren secured. First podium for Carlos in his F1 career and first podium for McLaren since 2014. What an amazing achievement for the entire team back home in the factory plus here at the track, and for Carlos and Lando after putting in so much hard work throughout the year.”

Winning on their own terms is very much accustomed to the Woking based team, who over their 56-year history have seen dominant eras gilded by silverware from 12 Drivers’ and eight Constructors’ World Championships.

There has almost been an expectation that McLaren would always be a winning team. Yet not to have won a race in seven years, that being Jenson Button at Interlagos in 2012 — is unprecedented. McLaren’s last taste of ultimate success came when Lewis Hamilton won his first Driver’s World Championship in 2008.

But the cracks were just appearing at McLaren in 2007 during the fallout of the ‘Spygate’ espionage controversy. Off the track, ‘Spygate’ signalled there was instability in McLaren’s ranks.

It was a tumultuous time that exposed alleged theft of Ferrari technical data and a rift between then Team Principle Ron Dennis and Fernando Alonso, as Alonso accused the team of favouring Dennis’ young protege Hamilton.

Dennis retired as team principle in 2009 and eventually parted completely in 2017 after his 37 year association with the McLaren Technology Group. During his time Dennis oversaw McLaren’s most successful period across the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2015 McLaren went back to Honda engines for the first time since 1992, in what began as a hark back to the halcyon days of the Honda powered MP4/4 winning 15 out of 16 races and Ayrton Senna’s first world championship in 1988.

But the ‘McLaren-Honda 2.0’ partnership ended in an unmitigated disaster as the team slumped to ninth in the constructors’ championship in 2017.

Yet like any good comeback story there has to be a pivotal point where the fight back to the top begins.

That began when motorsport marketing guru Zac Brown took over as McLaren CEO, Brown said to McLaren.com he took over at the most difficult time.

“I definitely joined in probably the most difficult period in the team’s history, but to me that’s the exciting part. That’s the challenge. What we needed to do was provide clear leadership and direction, and ensure the right people were in the right places. I think we’re now going in the right direction. The decisions we have made are paying off, but there’s still a long way to go.”

The first milestone on the road back success came when Brown divorced McLaren from its partnership with Honda in 2016, striking a new engine supply with Renault.

Brown also oversaw the increase of sponsorship investment and was instrumental bringing Seidl to the team along with James Key as Technical Director.

Brown also attributes the teams renewed stability from retaining the services of drivers Sainz and Lando Norris.

“We’re currently in a period of rebuilding and we want stability. Both Carlos and Lando are performing well and we’re very happy with them, therefore we wanted to confirm them early. I’m sure there are many teams that would love to have either of them in a race car and by confirming them when we did, we avoided getting caught up in ‘silly season,” he said.

It was quite fitting that Sainz’s P20 to P3 drive at Interlagos very much echoed McLaren’s fight back to the podium, but despite the much welcomed success, Seidl said to McLaren.com he is now looking for success on the teams’ own terms.

“We keep our heads down and now focus on securing our positions in the Drivers’ World Championship. The achievement this year together with the podium today is the perfect motivation for all of us to keep working hard in order to score podiums again in the future for McLaren based on our own outright performance.”

With great results in the bag for 2019 and a revitalised partnership with Mercedes as their new engine supplier in 2021, the team as a collective appears now to have their heads in a good space for the challenges ahead, to finally get that elusive win they so desperately hunger.