Can McLaren bounce back at Spa?

By Parminio
August 24 2004

McLaren have done well in the past at Spa, but after the poor showing at Hungary, most McLaren fans are wondering just exactly what went wrong.

Tire selection seems to have been the major mistake. After showing good pace all weekend long, even taking top speed on the final practice session, McLaren made the switch to the harder compound tires. In the end, it doomed Kimi and David as it penalized the cars speed by a second per lap.

It's hard to understand why the decision was made, but one can only assume that McLaren were dealing with some sort of wear issue. The other factor is that McLaren expected it to get much hotter than it did. Both are plausable issues, but the fact that noone else chose the harder compound gives reason to wonder.

Spa is a tough track. It has high speed corners, medium speed turns, and of course the bus stop chicane that slows the cars to a crawl. If McLaren are having some sort of wear issue, Spa could be another hard pill to swallow as Hungary was.

Williams BMW on the other hand showed well at Hungary with their new-old nose. Going back to the FW-25's front end with some updated aerodynamics made a big difference for the FW-26. This doesn't bode well for us McLaren fans, as McLaren are hoping to overhaul Williams by seasons end. Spa is going to be the litmus test for the remaining races for both teams. A car that can do well at Spa is going to finish off the season doing well. If McLaren don't get it together this weekend, it will be one of the worst seasons in McLaren history.