Atlas F1 Magazine: McLaren's Sabbatical Year

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McLaren's Sabbatical Year

By Karl Ludvigsen, England
Atlas F1 Senior Writer

Despite a nearly perfect United States Grand Prix, Karl Ludvigsen believes next year is not a season in which McLaren can be seen as challenging again for either Championship titles. But the Woking-based team are planning for the future

McLaren could hardly have improved on their Indy weekend. It would have been nice for Mika Hakkinen to have held on to his front-row starting spot, but otherwise, with the Finn first and Scot David Coulthard third - thus getting a firmer grip on the latter's vice-champion slot - it was a finish of which to be proud. Indeed, as team chief Ron Dennis said, the results spoke for themselves.

But this has not been a McLaren-style season. Not at all. The team will have to gain some good placings in Japan to avoid ending the year with only a double-digit total in the Constructors' Championship points, something that hasn't happened since 1997. This is the team that Hakkinen led to World Championships in 1998 and 1999, at the culmination of a dramatic recovery to form in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz. Austere and antiseptic McLaren may be, but it's a style that has made them a winner. I'm confident that the Woking outfit hasn't lost the drive that brought it back to the top of the heap.

For the immediate future, though, the prospects for McLaren aren't good. Ferrari are still on a roll and Michael Schumacher Esq. seems as determined as ever. They will be hard to beat next year. Similarly, the BMW-Williams package will reach serious maturity in 2002, as will its Michelin tires. I think those two will lead the battle for supremacy in Formula One, with some interruptions from Renault and Jordan-Honda. Next year is not a season in which McLaren can be seen as challenging again for either Championship titles.

That's why I think Ron Dennis is quietly but clearly declaring 2002 a rebuilding season for McLaren. Here's why:

Ilmor is building a completely new 90-degree-vee engine for Mercedes. This is a radical change and it will take a season for the new engine to get sorted properly. Its evolution version will be a strong challenger in 2003. Ilmor also has to complete its restructuring after the loss of co-founder Paul Morgan.

McLaren may well, as rumored, switch to Michelins next year. That too would require some adaptation time. By 2003 Michelin will be right on top of their game and designing some tires that will suit the McLarens.

Mika is taking a year off. He is doing so with the knowledge that McLaren-Mercedes won't be in the thick of the fight for top honors next year. Coulthard and newcomer Kimi Raikkonen can carry the team through the year. When Mika returns, it will be to a team that can really carry the mail in 2003. I'll bet he and Ron have discussed this.

Nick Heidfeld is justly unhappy about not being chosen to stand in for Mika next year. By a year from now, however, Dennis will be lining up his drivers for the 2003 campaign, and that's when he will be able to consider a seasoned Heidfeld as well as that forgotten man, Alex Wurz. Ron has strategized his way into a first-class driving cadre. Mr. Coulthard will have to look to his laurels.

McLaren's phenomenal new Paragon facility will be completed during next year and will be in a position to contribute to the design and construction of the 2003 car. The wind tunnel is already up and running. It takes time to calibrate a tunnel; it will only really be giving fully valid results in time for the first tests of the models for the 2003 season in the summer of next year.

Ron Dennis is shrewd enough to know that he has to set out a long-term strategy to his sponsors and backers. He can't make unrealistic promises, especially not to Mercedes-Benz. You'll recall that I said earlier in the year that Mercedes would be fit to be tied about BMW's remarkable success in only their second year? I recently spoke to a visitor to McLaren whose appointment with Ron had to be cancelled because, she was told, "There are three Mercedes people in his office yelling at him." Dennis has to be able to tell those people not to expect too much next year but that his rebuilding should bring the desired result in 2003.

This is the long view that brings success in Formula One. More than any other factor, it marks the difference between the true "Grandee" teams and the also-rans. The Grandees are not scrambling from month to month and season to season for sponsors, engines, designers and drivers. They have the luxury of being able to plan for the longer term in all those respects. Why do they have that luxury? Because they are run by people whose natural inclination is to play the long game, to strategize well down the road. They know when and how to sacrifice the short term to gain a long-term advantage. That's what I think McLaren will be doing next year.

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