British Grand Prix: once mighty McLaren appear to have lowered F1 sights

It is hard to know quite how McLaren will view their home grand prix as the dust and drizzle settles after a thrilling race at Silverstone. Their car and its Honda power unit has been way off the pace all season and they had qualified 17th and 18th on the grid, ahead of only the two Manor cars, and in the race Jenson Button was knocked out on lap one by his team-mate Fernando Alonso. Yet, Alonso did finish in the points, albeit with only one, in 10th. That this is only the second time the team have scored this season yet still might be seen as a positive is indicative of how a once mighty marque are now struggling.

The great days of the team’s partnership with Honda in the 1980s, of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, of winning 15 of 16 races in 1988, could not seem further away and at the moment there seems little hope of improvement on the horizon. The racing director, Eric Boullier, made it clear this weekend that the idea of Honda, who began developing their engine two years after the other manufacturers, having long-term goals for success was incompatible with his team’s need to start winning now.

It is a need beyond simple prestige and perhaps becoming urgent. They have had no title sponsor since the deal with Vodafone ended in 2013 and face a salary bill for Button and Alonso understood to amount to about £33m. As one of the long-term members of the sport they benefit from its arcane financial payout system but McLaren could still face a loss of revenue of about £30m from most probably finishing in ninth place, their lowest position for 35 years. “Companies are interested in joining us but some people in their organisations may question the results we are lacking and I don’t think we can wait for very long any more,” noted Boullier earlier in the race weekend.

This is the fifth race Button has failed to finish this year – indeed, in Bahrain his car was not able even to start – although it was pure bad luck. Alonso was spun when the two Lotus cars came together at turn three and he clumped Button, causing his engine to turn off. The British driver has been stoic all season, insisting that developing a works engine with Honda is the only way to catch Mercedes, but he was not happy. “I am disappointed, obviously,” he said. “In front of your home crowd you want to put on a good show and I wasn’t able to do that, and that is a shame.” He also made note of one of motor racing’s great truisms: that it is easier to stay out of trouble if you have clear air. “These things happen when you are so far back, so we need to qualify better. It is more likely to happen when you are starting 18th than starting on the front row,” he said.

His team-mate’s position in the points was really down to retirements – of which there were seven – and the rain rather than raw speed. In the dry, on the hard tyre, he was consistently around two seconds off the lead and Alonso admitted it had been “a difficult race” and that his team had been “off the pace”. “It’s not the best of results but 10th position helps to motivate everyone,” he said. Again, tellingly, that is not a phrase one would expect from a pedaller at McLaren.

Known to be hard to work with when things are not going his way, the Spaniard, for the moment, is calm. How long that lasts is uncertain. It cannot have helped that the weekend also featured moments of inefficiency that will have driven the chief executive, Ron Dennis, to distraction, including fitting Button’s tyre to Alonso’s car during qualifying and an overlong pitstop to change a nose during the race. Even the clockwork efficiency of the team looks shaken under the current circumstances.

However disappointed Button might be at such a short run in what may be his final British Grand Prix, he was sticking with the line he has held all season. Earlier in the weekend he had pointed out the difficulties in developing an engine he described as both “aggressive” and “extreme” and after the race he was still looking forward. “I am still racing a Formula One car,” he said. “You are optimistic every time you get in the car that it is going to improve . We have had a couple of really bad races but I am still optimistic that it is going to improve.”

It is a stance he has resolutely stuck to across nine races now and one, no doubt, he is increasingly tired of repeating. McLaren need to start putting some flesh on what are becoming mightily tired bones.