Ask Gary Anderson: What's holding back McLaren-Honda?

With Honda bringing a 'new spec' engine and McLaren bringing an update package, do you think they will be able to fight the likes of Toro Rosso?
Sumedh Chhabria, via Twitter

If you were to visit either the McLaren or Honda facilities and compare them with Toro Rosso, you would be speechless. McLaren shouldn't even be thinking about having to catch Toro Rosso.

I would love to know what the problems really are. It's easy to blame Honda, but I don't think McLaren's car is as good a everyone thinks it is.

Yes there are some lovely concepts and parts on it, but it all needs to work together. The cooling package doesn't seem to be adequate to allow Honda room to manoeuvre.

In your first year of competition with such a complicated power-unit package you need to be able to find the limits and then work from there. I don't believe the McLaren package allows Honda to do that.

On the new colour scheme - I once had a driver in F3 that believed that a white car was faster than a black car as it triggered the timing system earlier.

No matter how much time I spent trying to tell him that the timing system had to be triggered at the start of the lap as well as at the end of it, he went off and painted his car white.

Guess what? He was quicker. Perhaps that's something to add to the question below about how drivers get an edge!

If there were no regulations in F1 what could you achieve, how much more could you get from the cars?
Gareth Richards, via Twitter

That question is really tough to answer. Engine-wise if there was no limit then the horsepower would be crazy. Downforce-wise the cars would easily develop four times what they currently have - or even more.

Regulations are required to control the car's performance, be that top or cornering speeds. If this was left open, none of the circuits would be able to be used because of the safety implications.

It is important to have regulations not only for the above, but also to define the challenge of working within them. What we currently have today is completely wrong - it's too restrictive - but that's another question for another day.

Do you believe Ferrari can make the step to compete on genuine pace at Barca?
Scot Reid, via Twitter

No I don't think so. Barcelona is the circuit where everyone introduces their first batches of upgrades. But we need to remember that Ferrari was about 0.8 seconds slower than Mercedes before this mini-break and, in reality, that is a lifetime in F1.

Assuming Mercedes gets it right this weekend, if Ferrari can close down the gap at all then I think it will be happy. By mid-season, I expect Ferrari to be nipping at Mercedes heels though.

Whether that is soon enough to be a serious threat for the world championship is another question.

What process do drivers use to find an edge on their team-mates when visiting a circuit perfected by everyone, such as Barcelona?
@mindmapdesign, via Twitter

That's the million-dollar question and I think Nico Rosberg would probably pay big money for the answer!

It is about mind management. If you have had a good winter test in Barcelona, you need to build on that. And you can't let the bad days get you down, so you have to clear your head and reset your mind if things do go wrong. That's what the best drivers have always been able to do.

Barcelona is a driver's circuit with some very good high-speed corners and during testing every driver will have kept that little bit back to use when the race weekend finally comes around.

You also have to be very carful, though. You can arrive with the same set-up as winter testing but because the circuit temperature is different the car will handle differently.

It's very important to treat it as just another race weekend. Whoever does this best will come out on top.

If you were 40 years younger today, do you think you would be drawn into motosport in the same way you were originally?
Michael Davies, via email

Are you saying I'm old?!

To answer your question, I doubt it very much. When I got involved it was a team sport where all eight of us that formed the Brabham travelling team did everything.

It was a great life for a young guy but now you're just a very small cog in a massive wheel that just keeps on turning.

I really do think I saw the best years of F1. Starting in the early 70s through to the early 2000s and then being involved in the media for the next 12 years was just great.

In those years I spent in the media it changed so much. You can stand talking to someone who you know very well and works with a team and even they are giving me a load of hot air.

That's what it has come to. To be honest it just isn't as fun for any of the guys involved in it anymore.

To sum it up, it was my life back then, but now it would just be a job.

Was the Jordan 191 was as good aerodynamically as it looked?
David Woolfenden, via Twitter

It didn't produce the overall downforce of some of its competitors, but what downforce it did produce was very driver-friendly. It was also fairly efficient so straightline speed wasn't too bad.

It was a driver-friendly and efficient package - but then I suppose I would say that!

Everyone chases the big downforce numbers but, in reality, peaky downforce is a waste of time because the driver feels this as a nervous car. After it bites him a couple of times he then stays away from the limit meaning that he drives slower than he would do if he had car with stable aerodynamic characteristics that were confidence inspiring.

It bugs me to read that McLaren's new aero chief (Peter Prodromou) has decided that in the past few years the team has been perusing peaky downforce and that he has now changed its research direction.

How can a team of this standing not recognise this as a problem? Did McLaren really have to bring some one in from Red Bull to learn this?

Do you think very open engine and technical regulations (like in LMP1) would scare away non-manufacturer teams in F1?
Mark Lovas, via Twitter

The regulations in LMP1 are far from open. As a matter of fact, they are probably more tightly controlled than in F1. It is what is allowed that is different.

I suppose that question actually answers itself in the fact that they have more acceptable regulations for the privateer in LMP2.

I don't think you can compare different formulas as far as regulations are concerned. F1 needs to change in many ways and we all have an opinion on how that should be, but most importantly it needs stand alone as the pinnacle of motorsport.

Unfortunately, the people who can do something about this have all got their heads deeply inserted in the sand.

If this doesn't change soon then I think its future is questionable.