Hamilton: McLaren misjudged Honda F1 switch
Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren underestimated the complexity of switching to Honda power in 2015, leaving the team struggling at the back of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton has said McLaren underestimated the challenge of switching to Honda engines for the 2015 Formula One season, as the team endured a difficult start to its renewed partnership with the Japanese manufacturer.
McLaren failed to score a point in the opening five races of 2015, a situation Hamilton described as almost unthinkable for a team of its history and resources. The reigning world champion, who won his first title with McLaren in 2008, told Spain's El Pais he was surprised to see his former team "so lost in Australia" at the season opener.
Hamilton points to underestimated technical challenges
Hamilton, now leading the championship with Mercedes, said it is common in Formula One for teams to misjudge the scale of technical changes. He cited the 2009 double diffuser as another example where the field underestimated a disruptive innovation. In McLaren's case, the move to works Honda power proved more difficult than anticipated, with reliability and performance issues leaving the team well off the pace.
"They decided to change the engine and my experience tells me that in F1 it is quite common when challenges are underestimated," Hamilton said. He added that, given McLaren's facilities and pedigree, their current position seemed almost impossible. Still, he expressed confidence that McLaren would eventually return to the front, but could not predict when that would happen.
Alonso and Button face tough start
Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have both struggled with the new McLaren-Honda package. In Spain, Button described his 30 laps as "the scariest of my life" due to handling problems, while Alonso nearly hit a mechanic in the pits after a brake failure. Button admitted after the race that he did not expect to score points at all in 2015 if the situation did not improve.
Alonso, who returned to McLaren after leaving Ferrari, said the team had made progress by reducing the gap to the front from four and a half seconds per lap in Australia to two seconds by Spain. He argued that no team had ever recovered so much time so quickly, but acknowledged that McLaren still needed to make "double steps" to catch up, as rivals would also continue to improve.
Hamilton on timing and career decisions
Hamilton reflected on how timing and team choices affect a driver's success. He suggested that Fernando Alonso, despite his talent, had not always been in the right place at the right time, referencing Alonso's departure from Ferrari just as the Italian team was regaining competitiveness. Hamilton compared Alonso's ability to Michael Schumacher, but noted that circumstances and decisions play a major role in championship tallies.
- McLaren's switch to Honda ended a long partnership with Mercedes.
- The team expected to benefit from a works engine deal, but reliability and integration issues dominated early results.
- Rivals continued to develop, making McLaren's recovery even harder.
Despite the early struggles, both Hamilton and Alonso indicated that McLaren's progress was genuine, even if the road back to competitiveness would be longer than initially hoped. For more on how McLaren and Honda approached their 2015 rebuilding, seeAlonso Waiting to Set McLaren Honda Goal for 2015.
