What are McLaren’s F1 options if they can’t keep Alonso?

2019 F1 season

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McLaren is experiencing a period of upheaval.

It began with the desparture of Ron Dennis, continued with the severing of its relationship with Honda, and goes on as the team imposes a new management structure and replaces senior team figures Eric Boullier, Matt Morris and Tim Goss.

Under the circumstances, continuity in its driver line-up would be a valuable thing. But that relies on keeping hold of Fernando Alonso, and as discussed here earlier, he may decide he has better things to do than spend another season scrapping in the lower reaches of the top 10.

If Alonso does go, who will the team turn to? It made an approach to Daniel Ricciardo, but with him now off to Renault it’s the driver he’s replacing, Carlos Sainz Jnr, who seems to be favoured. Discussions have been held with his management, and in a scenario where Red Bull turn Sainz down for 2019 the chances of him landing a McLaren seat look increasingly credible.

What about Stoffel Vandoorne? His form against Alonso this year has been poor, but there are few tougher team mates to be measured against, Alonso has heaped praise on his younger team mate, who he hasn’t failed to beat in a single qualifying session so far this year.

Zak Brown has said Vandoorne needs to start beating Alonso. But his comments also indicate a preference for consistency:

“We do have a long-term agreement with Stoffel and Fernando but as you can imagine in these contracts there’s a variety of elements to them. We will make our driver decision when ultimaely we’re ready and anticipate that being sometimes after the summer break.

“We’re still reviewing, analysing what utlaimtely we think is the best combination for Mclaren moving forward and Stoffel is very much part of that consideration.”

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Another factor for McLaren to weigh up is the future of junior driver Lando Norris, who Brown says is “obviously a future star.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Hungaroring
Norris has tested for McLaren; will he race for them?
The 18-year-old is a seriously promising talent who has racked up a string of titles. He’s finding his rookie F2 season a little harder than expected – the dire reliability of the championship’s new machinery hasn’t helped – but if he does deliver the title, McLaren will have t put him somewhere else.

“Obviously you have a talent like Lando you want to keep him in the family,” says Brown. Will that mean promoting him to the F1 team? Parking him in Japanese Super Formula, as they did with Vandoorne? Loaning him out to a rival, such as Toro Rosso in return for getting technical director James Key early?

At least this question, unlike most of McLaren’s dilemmas, can be considered a good problem to have.

View the current list of 2019 F1 drivers and teams

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Quotes: Dieter Rencken

2019 F1 season

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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50 comments on “What are McLaren’s F1 options if they can’t keep Alonso?”

  1. Hard to say but I think they may have a new line up next year. I think Alonso will go to Indy Cars and they think Stoffel hasn’t got it- funny as Ron Dennis was so keen on him (as he was K-Mag).

    Sainz I say seems firm but if they go Norris not sure. There are rumours Ocon going there for the rest of the year and Stroll will go to SFI. I am not sure I can see that happening but who knows.

    1. There are rumours Ocon going there for the rest of the year and Stroll will go to SFI. I am not sure I can see that happening but who knows.

      @garns

      I don’t see Stroll making a mid season move. It will be a massive task to get to grips with the Force India that late in the season. Anyways, Stroll looks plenty rubbish even in that Williams. He will look a whole load more rubbish if he switches to Force India mid season and pairs up against Perez. I think Stroll should focus on just beating Sirotkin this season, and then focus on not getting outclassed by whoever he races against in a Force India next season.

      1. To be fair, getting to grips with a new car can’t be any worse than attempting to wrestle the Williams

        1. @hugh11

          It will be worse for him. At least he can compete neck and neck with Sirotkin right now, but he’d get absolutely smashed by Perez starting from his first FP1 for Force India.

      2. Oh that would be laughable. Perez would mop the floor with Stroll.

    2. Interesting tweet from Mark Hughes

      “Other team mates have been further off me than Stoffel,” said Alonso. It’s true. Here are the numbers:
      Vandoorne (’17)+0.195%
      Fisichella (’06)+0.224%
      Grosjean (’09)+0.386%
      Massa (’11)+0.427%
      Massa (’10)+0.460%
      Räikkönen (’14)+0.549%
      Fisichella (’05)+0.550%
      Piquet (’08)+0.598%

  2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    14th August 2018, 11:54

    Well, I think McLaren may be able to have a successful 2nd year with Renault. We can give them a year to get used to things. It clearly didn’t work out with Honda, but they may come good with more time to work with their car over the winter. Sainz will have had a good year and a bit with Renault themselves so may be able to help a bit. I’ve been very disappointed with Vandoorne. Given his reputation, in that sense, I don’t think there has been a more disappointing driver come into F1 in recent years. I think Sainz should replace him and maybe Gasly should go to Red Bull. Last time they went for a driver with a year and a bit of experience in F1, it worked out great, so given how decent Gasly has looked, I think they can risk that again.

  3. Sainz-Vandoorne, probably, which would be pretty much as good as a team in their current positon – low midfield – could hope for.

    Be interesting to see what Vandoorne can do on equal terms with a ‘normal’ team-mate.

    1. Do not forget that Alonso had a preferred driver status related to nwe updates and developments.
      The two probably never drove wit the same machinery this year. That makes it somewhat hard to compare.

  4. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t change something. Vandoorne is pretty far from beating Alonso, so if they retain Alonso, why wouldn’t they roll the dice and get someone else in alongside him? If Alonso leaves, then perhaps it would make sense to keep Vandoorne as a reference point for the newcomer. I can’t see them replacing both drivers, though could be surprised!

    As for the options; Lando Norris is the obvious, in-house solution, but he does remain an unknown quantity in the top tier. There are other young talents potentially becoming available next year, including Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz.

    If it was me, I’d attempt to broker a deal to loan Norris to Toro Rosso (who have made noises about wanting him). This gets him onto the grid and one step closer to filling a McLaren in the future. I’d then try to get Ocon, Sainz or Vandoorne (in that order) alongside Alonso. If Alonso then left, I’d go for Ocon or Sainz alongside Vandoorne.

    I can’t see many other options… Raikkonen is a backwards step in my opinion. The line-up will be weaker if Alonso leaves, without question.

    1. If Alonso’s gone (which most likely seems the case), I don’t think Lando will be making his debut with McLaren next year. You’re right, that they’d most likely look for either Ocon or Sainz to replace Alonso and keep Vandoorne as a stable marker to compare the other driver’s performance. The only way Lando would debut in a McLaren is if Alonso stays and Vandoorne will get the boot.

      I actually think that Ocon will remain in the Mercedes stable (either Williams or Force India), and Sainz will be let go by Red Bull. The most likely scenario for McLaren would either be –
      1. Alonso / Norris OR
      2. Sainz / Vandoorne with Norris on loan to Toro Rosso

      1. Agreed on all counts. In terms of what I “think” will happen, I’m sure Ocon will be nowhere near the McLaren, but I’d be throwing everything I have at him.

        To add to your “Scenario 2” (which I anticipate being the line up next year); I’d expect Norris to then replace the loser of the Sainz-Vandoorne battle in 2020, assuming he has a good year with Toro Rosso.

    2. The biggest reason to keep someone with serious experience is that with a potentially all-new engineering/design team on board, you need drivers with good feedback and development ability. I don’t know how good Stoffel or Carlos are with feedback.

    3. Matthew Fletcher
      14th August 2018, 15:20

      If they put norris in a torro rosso, why would he want to lrave and go down to maclaren later?

      Maclaren are not a desirable team to drive for anymore than williams are.

      Alonso’s best bet is to either get a red bull seat (horner does not want him and he might be embarrassed by verstappen) or leave for other series where he can get a decent car.

      Maclaren need some steady, experienced points scorers at this stage, people who push hard but not too hard. Getting the thing to the flag in the top 10 will do until they learn how to make fast cars again.

      As we have seen with alonso and vandoorne, maclaren is a poisoned chalice at the monent. No new driver will want that job.

  5. Whether their line-up is Alonso – Vandoorne, Alonso – Norris / Alonso – Sainz / Vandoorne – Norris / Vandoorne – Sainz or indeed Sainz – Norris, there is no doubt they will be able to put out a strong driver pairing next season.

    The main issue they need to get their heads around is how to build a competitive car…

    1. I agree to a certain extent, but just look how much stronger it is with Alonso there. As you say, Vandoorne-Sainz is “fine”, but it’s arguably far worse than say Hulkenberg-Ricciardo, Ocon-Perez or even Magnussen-Grosjean, all teams McLaren are fighting with.

      Of course, Formula One is about far more than the driver, but to me, having Alonso is as much a statement of intent as it is a strong driver. With Alonso it feels to me as though McLaren could spring back to the front at any moment. Without the “statement driver” that Alonso is (or even someone like Ricciardo could have been), it gives the team a flat feel… not as bad as Williams, but heading in that direction.

  6. How many photos did you have to trawl through to find the one that goes along with this article, Keith? :-)

    1. That’s why any decent photographer organizes their photos, and one of the key aspects of organizing photos is adding keywords.
      Then, any time you need a photo with those three guys, you just type their names into search, and database spits out all of the relevant photos.
      So, in other words, finding that photo was probably quite easy, but real work was done long before, and needs to be done continuously on maintaining your database.

      1. I know that, that question was only in jest, Biggsy. :-)
        In fact, Keith himself makes the tags available to us below the full-size version of the images on the site.

  7. Typo heaven this article. Ultimately misspelled twice. McLaren once, and a t on it’s own. Looks like it was really cold and the typist was shaking :)

  8. Really milking this Alonso thing

  9. Alonso may have beaten him in every qualifying, but on average it is only by 0.2s, one problem is that is an important margin in the compressed midfield, with 2-3 cars being between them. On race days those few extra cars between them are the difference between a few points and none at all.

  10. Perez and Norris?

    With the Force India buy out I think Stroll moving there is a given.

  11. Whatever line-up it will be from the options presented, it will ensure talent. Improving the overall performance of the team is far more challenging and urgent. Hope they can fix whatever (seems to be a bit of everything) is not working because I’d hate to see icons like Williams and McLaren disappear. The budget (legit) excuse is part of the challenge, but there seems to be more ‘off’ than that. Apparently the business model is not working in this day and age. So they should look into that. In Williams case, already having the right power source I would immediately switch to a Haas model of running the business. For McLaren this is less obvious. Given their turmoil for quite some years now, I am tempted to point the finger at management. They’ve made some steps there, but uncertain is whether it was enough.

    1. I don’t think they need to evaluate the business model right now as F1 is in for an overhaul of commercial terms anyways in 2021.

      I think they need to reevaluate what it takes to win again. That would involve decisons about being a factory team. Whether they need to find new engine partners or actually start setting up their own engine manufacturing. The 2014 to 2020 regulations in F1 are a farce. They’ve been set up so that either of two teams can win – Mercedes or Ferrari. 2021 will also be much of the same, although not so extreme. Mclaren need to move their focus to the next regulation set and set up their technical department and organisational structure to deal with the post 2021 era.

      I think it’s just damage limitation for McLaren up until 2021. I expect them to field the most uncompetitive driver line up in their company’s history next year. Whether it’s Sainz, Vandoorne or Ocon in those seats, it’s a proper midfield team driver lineup, something they haven’t had in as long as I can remember. Their focus shouldn’t be as much on driver lineup as much as it should be on making Mclaren attractive to drivers again.

      1. Which led me to consider what the worst ever McLaren driver line-up was… you probably have to go back to 1994-1995 for what I’d consider a ‘midfield’ driver line -up and even then it contained a young Mika Hakkinen for most races.

        Beyond that, Watson-de Cesaris in 1981 doesn’t set pulses racing.

        Just goes to show how right you are; unlike Williams for example, who have never concentrated too hard on their line-up, McLaren have always looked for the best drivers. Sainz-Vandoorne is far from that in terms of today’s grid.

        It really indicates how far McLaren’s stock has fallen since the end of 2012.

  12. I do think many of the comparisons between Alsonso and Van Doorne are not very fair:
    – we heard several times that Alonso received an upgrade earlier than Stoffel
    – Stoffel had the issue with the chassis. No clue as to why this happened only to him, but it affected at least 2 races drastically
    – I heard many times that Stoffel had to do testing on Friday instead of race setup, but I never heard this from Alonso. Didn’t Alonso have to do that, which would make the gap of Stoffel (0.2s in qualy) very nice. Or did Alonso also have to do it, which of course doesn’t make Stoffel look as nice.
    – I heard several times that Stoffel gave Alonso a tow, but didn’t find any reference this year (he did it last year in Monza when he had a 35-place grid penalty)
    – When Stoffel is ahead (doesn’t happen often, that’s true), Alonso’s car develops a mechanical issue in the last laps…
    So I don’t think we are getting the complete story.

    But on the other hand: there are plenty of drivers available and when you are not in the top 5 drivers, your future depends on so many other factors. McLaren has supported him on the way to F1, but it is a ruthless business. Only way to be sure to get a seat is to have plenty of sponsors or a rich dad.
    Stoffel has neither…

    1. Happy to read someone thinking like me 😋

  13. I would make a gamble with Leclerc. As close to a new Senna there is. The only one at Verstappens level of talent in the new generation.

  14. Sainz and Norris. Although even with his sub par performance I could see Stoffel holding on to his seat for another year with the idea of some stability.

  15. Ocon, Sainz, Norris, Vandoorne, Raikkonen… IMO, McLaren has plenty of good options for a solid lineup. The problem though is what has always have been recently: the car.

  16. desparture

    sometimes

    utlaimtely

    Yikes. At least give it a quick once over.

  17. I can see Sainz getting in there, and Stoffel getting another year before Norris comes in. Perez might be in the run for the Sainz seat.

    1. @magon4 Agree. Perez could easily return to McLaren as Brown has talked about wanting experience. Maybe even Perez and Sainz together although I would keep Vandoorne for continuity.

  18. Has sainz done enough this year though? Looking at the points it seems like sainz has been beaten by hulkenberg by a considerable margin. Maybe I’m missing something as I have not paid much attention to the renault drivers.

  19. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    14th August 2018, 17:07

    Kimi and Sainz might be the best option now that Alonso is leaving. Sainz can help score a good portion of Fernando’s points and Kimi can bring in the recognition that McLaren needs.

  20. Sainz and…wait for it…Grosjean.

    He’s at least as fast as Vandoorne and has much more experience with car development.
    They need all the feedback they can get in that area.

    1. Crikey, haven’t we heard enough of Grosjeans ‘feed back’ already?

  21. If Red Bull end up going for Sainz, Mclaren are in trouble driver-wise I reckon.

    I don’t think they will, I think they’ll go for Gasly, but if they do Mclaren are really going to be scrapping around as no way will they want the lineup to be Vandoorne-Norris. One or the other with an experienced “name”, yes, but not both.

  22. I can’t help it. Sainz’ face in this picture instantly reminds me of the me gusta meme face…

  23. Ocon and Sainz

    If Stroll is going to FI, then Ocon has got to get out of there. Vandoorne has been so poor.

  24. Why not Kubica – Norris? Great technical feedback and experience mixed with young, talented fresh blood…
    C’mon McLaren you have nothing to lose :]

  25. I find it funny to read that Vandorne has been poor. Last race he came back close to Alonso before needing to give him space and unfortunately retiring. He was a hero on his first race replacing Alonso last year. You never know who is getting what new piece on the car… which impact it has on the performance on the car. Even engineers said that if Vandorne gets the same car if could beat Alonso. Vandorne is one of the few who reached the F1 world with his talent not having sponsors or ich parents behind him. He has got the most prestigious run in reaching the F1 winning all the classes he had been racing. Formula 1 is only speculation…. you never know which orders are giving to who since every one is lying…or not telling the real truth. I look forward seeing Vandorne being regularly in front of his next colleague next year. His problem… being to humble… that is for sure…

  26. I find it funny to read that Vandorne has been poor. Last race he came back close to Alonso before needing to give him space and unfortunately retiring. He was a hero on his first race replacing Alonso last year. You never know who is getting what new piece on the car… which impact it has on the performance on the car. Even engineers said that if Vandorne gets the same car if could beat Alonso. Vandorne is one of the few who reached the F1 world with his talent not having sponsors or rich parents behind him. He has got the most prestigious run in reaching the F1 winning all the classes he had been racing. Formula 1 is only speculation…. you never know which orders are giving to who since every one is lying…or not telling the real truth. I look forward seeing Vandorne being regularly in front of his next colleague next year. His problem… being to humble… that is for sure…

  27. Sainz as a team leader? Ouch. Surely there are better options available, even taking a punt on Norris.

  28. so as it stands:-

    the following have no drive next year:-
    Sainz
    Ocon or Perez

    Seat available:-
    Williams
    McLaren
    Red Bull

    Incoming?
    Norris

    Stroll is at FI
    So Sainz is very likely to go to McLaren, and keen to go if RBR isnt for him as seems is possibly the case.
    Gasley goes to Red Bull, opens up a STR seat
    Norris loaned to STR to speed up the Keys move.
    Where does Ocon/Perez go??….and who will be at Williams?
    and ….if Leclerc goes to ferrari, does kimi go to Mclaren? I think this will be the end of vandoorne as kimi /sainz seems plausible.
    or if leclerc goes to Haas, grosjean is out and then what??
    It all seemed so simple a few weeks ago…phew!!

    1. now i’m thinking Ocon & Sainz to Mclaren….

      1. You probably need to squeeze George Russell into that line of incoming drivers

  29. How about sending F2 grads who aren’t ready for F1 to IndyCar? You can see your kid against some of the best in the world in a spec-like series on a huge stage.

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