Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren has taken ‘calculated technical risks’

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McLaren CEO Ron Dennis says the team has taken “calculated technical risks” with new technologies to try and improve quickly in 2015.

Mercedes had the dominant car and power unit package last season, winning all but three races as it secured a drivers’ and constructors’ championship double. With McLaren switching to Honda power this year, Dennis says it is natural for the team to be unable to complete similar mileage to its rivals during pre-season testing because it has introduced new concepts in order to try and match Mercedes’ performance.

"Are we surprised that a Mercedes can do 100-plus laps [per day]? No, not at all, because that's where you'd expect them to be coming out of a season where they were dominant and effectively developing a different package,” Dennis said. “Clearly if you are behind in any sport catching someone requires you to accelerate faster than they are running, otherwise you're not going to catch them up.

"Therefore, have we taken some calculated technical risks? Yes. These relate to technologies where we are the first to deploy them and need to work hard to get performance advantages.

“It probably won't even be until Australia until we know how well we are doing. I expect two or three races before we really get the lie of the land. The key word for everyone in the team [is] patience. We have to live with the frustrations we predicted for ourselves and some of these things aren't as optimised yet."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.